Who would have thought that ancient marine life would be found in Kentucky?

The Longest Cave in the World

Kentucky's Mammoth Cave holds the title of the longest cave in the world, at 426 miles. If you laid the entire cave system out end to end it would stretch from Evansville and almost make it to Detroit, Michigan (that's a whole lot of cave to explore)! It's truly remarkable when you think about it. We've known about Mammoth Cave for years, and to this day cave researchers continue to learn more about this cave system, discovering new passageways within it, and even finding new species of ancient marine life!

Ancient Marine Life Discovered in Kentucky

It's wild to think that Kentucky is becoming quite the hot spot for prehistoric marine life, but it's true! Over the past year alone, there have been three never-before-seen shark species discovered within Mammoth Cave National Park.

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More than 325 million years ago, the area that is now Mammoth Cave National Park was a place where marine life thrived. In February 2024, two brand-new shark species were discovered within the national park. Smithsonian notes that these sharks were around before the Pangaea supercontinent was even formed. WILD.

Two New Shark Species Discovered in Mammoth Cave in 2024

According to Smithsonian, paleontologists discovered two ancient shark species within Mammoth Cave National Park that had previously been unknown to science.

Paleontologists dubbed the new species Troglocladodus trimblei and Glikmanius careforum, the National Park Service announced last week. Both are thought to have been 10 to 12 feet long, about the size of a modern-day oceanic whitetip shark.

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Now, a 10-12-foot shark is a big ole shark! But just this year in March 2025, a tiny terror was discovered within Mammoth Cave National Park.

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New Tiny Terror Shark Species Discovered in 2025

According to the National Parks Service, there is ongoing paleontological research within Mammoth Cave, and they recently discovered a species of shark that was previously unknown to science. The Clavusodens mcginnisi or McGinnis' Nail Tooth, was discovered when fossil teeth were found inside the Ste. Genevieve formation.

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Here's the wild thing, the McGinnis' Nail Tooth shark that was most recently discovered was only about 3-4 inches long, so this little shark was a tiny terror.

This is wild, and so cool! I wonder what else they'll find down there!

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Gallery Credit: Stacey Marcus