0 comments
In 2013, paleontologist John-Paul Hodnett stumbled upon a 300-million-year-old fossil near Albuquerque, New Mexico. The fossil revealed a complete skeleton of a 6.7-foot-long shark with powerful jaws and long fin spines; an appearance that earned the creature the nickname, Godzilla shark. Now, finally after eight years the Godzilla shark has a real, taxonomic name. Although it’s not nearly as cool.
Smithsonian Magazine reported on the official naming, which comes following years of work to clean and stabilize the fossil. The researchers, working at a lab at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science (NMMNHS), also compared CT scans of the fossil to those of other ancient sharks in an effort to identify it.
Dracopristis and other species of ctenacanths are part of a unique evolutionary branch of the sharks that diverged from modern sharks and rays roughly 390 million years ago and became extinct by the end of the Paleozoic Era some 252 million years ago.
The assembled team was led by paleontologist John-Paul Hodnett, the program coordinator for the Maryland-National Capital Parks and Planning Commission’s Dinosaur Park in Laurel, Maryland, and also included Eileen D. Grogan and Richard Lund of St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania; Spencer G. Lucas, Curator of Paleontology at NMMNHS; Tom Suazo, former fossil preparator at NMMNHS; David K. Elliot of Northern Arizona University; and Jesse Pruitt of Idaho State University.
Godzilla Shark, the 300-million-year-old fossil discovered in New Mexico, gets an official name
Taylor ArdreyApr 17, 2021, 21:51 IST
In this undated photo provided by John-Paul Hodnett is a single tooth on the lower jaw of a 300-million-year-old shark species named this week following a nearly complete skeleton of the species in 2013 in New Mexico.John-Paul Hodnett via AP
Scientists finally named an ancient shark fossil that was found in 2013, according to the AP.
Once named, Gorilla Shark, researchers renamed the 300 million old shark Dracopristis hoffmanorum.
The shark was named after the Hoffman family who owned the land where the fossil was found,a news release said.