'Godzilla' shark discovered in New Mexico gets formal name | News, Sports, Jobs morningjournalnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from morningjournalnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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.
Apr 20, 2021
SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) The 300-million-year-old shark’s teeth were the first sign that it might be a distinct species.
The ancient chompers looked less like the spear-like rows of teeth of related species. They were squatter and shorter, less than an inch long, around 2 centimeters.
“Great for grasping and crushing prey rather than piercing prey,” said discoverer John-Paul Hodnett, who was a graduate student when he unearthed the first fossils of the shark at a dig east of Albuquerque in 2013.
This week, Hodnett and a slew of other researchers published their findings in a bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science identifying the shark as a separate species.
New Mexico s 300-million-year-old Godzilla shark gets its official name
In this undated photo provided by John-Paul Hodnett are a row of teeth 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.
Photo by PTI
The 300-million-year-old shark s teeth were the first sign that it might be a distinct species.
The ancient chompers looked less like the spear-like rows of teeth of related species. They were squatter and shorter, less than an inch long, around 2 centimeters. Great for grasping and crushing prey rather than piercing prey, said discoverer John-Paul Hodnett, who was a graduate student when he unearthed the first fossils of the shark at a dig east of Albuquerque in 2013.
‘Godzilla’ shark discovered in New Mexico gets formal name
By CEDAR ATTANASIOApril 16, 2021 GMT
RETRANSMISSION TO CORRECT TO SINGLE TOOTH NOT A ROW OF TEETH - 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. Discoverer Hodnett says it was the short, squat teeth that first alerted him to the possibility that the specimen initially dubbed Godzilla Shark could be a species distinct from it s ancient cousins, which have longer, more spear-like teeth. The image was taken using angled light techniques that reveal fossil features underneath sediment. (John-Paul Hodnett via AP)