300-Million-Year-Old Godzilla Shark Discovered in New Mexico Gets a New Name
Fossils of the 6.7-foot-long monster were unearthed accidentally in 2013 when a team of researchers was studying rocks at the spot.
By Edited by Gadgets 360 Newsdesk | Updated: 19 April 2021 15:03 IST
Photo Credit: New Mexico Culture
Godzilla Shark is now known as Hoffman’s Dragon Shark
Highlights
Hodnett and his team found out that it was a new kind of shark
They named it ‘Dracopristis Hoffmanorum'
Godzilla Shark, a monster shark whose fossilised skeleton was discovered in New Mexico in 2013, has been named ‘Dracopristis Hoffmanorum', or ‘Hoffman's Dragon Shark', by researchers. The fossils of the 6.7-foot-long shark that lived 300 million years ago were unearthed during a dig at the Manzano Mountains, about 50km from Albuquerque in New Mexico, by a graduate student, John-Paul Hodnett. Initially, due to its features, the monster was nicknamed ‘Godzilla Shark'. A few days ago, Hodnett and other researchers published their findings in a New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science (NMMNHS) bulletin where they identified the shark as a separate species.