Fossil sand tiger shark

This shark was apparently also the most common shark at most other African localities of the Paleocene.

Odontaspis substriata is the most common shark among the fossils of Jabal Umm Himar, about 100 km east of At Taif; these fossils date from the Paleocene, at the beginning of the Cenozoic Era.

Sand sharks live in nearshore and estuarine waters; with other fossils they show Jabal Umm Himar was an estuary or lagoon in a tropical or subtropical climate during the Paleocene, so a shallow sea reached the At Taif region.