As classic tales tell us, serendipity is often the mischievous muse leading us to a solution we only dimly
know we are seeking. Thus it was for John. In a manner parallel to the arrowheads churned up from
deeper layers in the fields of Western North Carolina, John and his partner stumbled upon sharks’ teeth.
Often broken from the unrelenting currents of time and the jaws of the machines that dredged them
from the bottom of the ocean, these relics of sea creatures lay strewn upon the shore. Like children on a
treasure hunt, they were awed and delighted by each fragment they found: sharks’ teeth and vertebrae,
fossilized pieces of whales, dolphins, sharks and horses. Unlike many other collectors, they were as
entranced by the broken teeth as they were by the prized whole teeth. Oh, these primordial fragments,
tens of millions of years old, ransacked from the depths, tossed and scattered by tides!
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