A mystery surrounds a shark with a jaw you have to see to believe. The helicoprion, or the buzz-saw shark, lived 290 million years ago and had a spiral like jaw full of teeth. Scientists are baffled on the exact aesthetics of such a creature, but a traveling exhibit on display at the University of Oregon’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History hopes to shed some light on the beast.
Created by artist Ray Troll, paleontologist Leif Tapanila and others at the University of Idaho, the exhibit contains 21 pieces of original art along with a variety of fossils, Kristin Strommer, the Museum’s Communications Manager, said.
Troll was inspired by the fossil of the shark’s spiral jaw, or whorl-shaped dentition, to create a series of art depicting how scientist’s theorize what the shark looked like.
Little was known of the buzz-saw shark when first discovered in 1899. Scientists have uncovered more fossil evidence since it’s discovery, which has changed how it’s believed the helicoprion looked and how it’s jaw functioned, according to National Geographic. It is this evolution of the buzz-saw shark Troll and others aim to capture in this art.
“I just knew it was cool from the very first moment I saw the fossil. I knew this exhibit had to be and it’s here,” Troll said.
In addition to the artwork, the exhibit includes a video on a computer monitor that introduces Troll, Tapanilia and all the people behind the design and creation of the buzz-saw shark exhibit. The exhibit also showcases a mechanical device that demonstrates how the shark’s jaws could have worked, Strommer said.
“They’re just really impressive animals. I was just looking around at all this artwork and it’s crazy to think these things existed at one point,” Aiden Midelton, a student at Lane County Community College said.
The UO is the fourth place the exhibit has visited, after being in Alaska, Washington, and Idaho, Strommer said. This is the second traveling exhibit to appear in the museum based on Troll’s work and is a site which the artist encourages all to see.
“You know, if you don’t see it, it’s really on you man. You’re like a total loser if you don’t see it. It would be totally cool if you do see it because then you’ll know, once you actually look at the spiral teeth, once you look at these giant mega fossils, it will blow your freaken mind, and you’ll have missed out on the event of the century,” Troll said.
Troll is famous for his signature, a cheeseburger, which he hides in most of his art. Make sure to be on the lookout for it when visiting the exhibit, Strommer said.
The exhibit opened Nov. 5th and will be on display until April when it will be shipped back to Idaho. It is free of charge to see for all UO students with school ID.
“These are cool, cool, cool, fossils and mind blowing art. See it to believe it,” Troll said.

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Buzz-saw shark makes a splash at UO Museum