A jaw-dropping catch

"Shark Week" came early for an angler who caught a shark's jawbone while fishing the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids, Minn.

"We thought it was a sheep skull or cow jaw until we saw the teeth," said Joey Piskel, who watched his dad, Joe Piskel, reel it in.

They brought the 9- to 10-inch jawbone to the Department of Natural Resources office in Grand Rapids, where a fisheries biologist identified it as from a sand tiger shark, a saltwater species that can't survive in freshwater. Photos of the jawbone were shared on the popular Fishesota Facebook page and Fishing Minnesota Facebook page, leading to lively discussions about how it got in the Mississippi River in the first place.

One group member suggested that the jawbone came from a gift shop in Florida. DNR officials said it didn't appear to be a "tourist trinket."