Post by MoMo on May 25, 2014 10:17:52 GMT -6
A 300-million-year-old shark, dubbed "Godzilla shark," has been found in the Monzano Mountains east of Albuquerque, New Mexico, paleontologist John-Paul-Hodnett informed Discovery News.
Hodnett is an independent researcher with institutional ties to Northern Arizona University and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He serendipitously came across the tip of the shark's nose, embedded in rock, while on a trip to the mountains. Its size, anatomy, age, and state of preservation make it a noteworthy discovery, in addition to the shark's resemblance to the fictional Godzilla.
Hodnett explained: "We are calling it Godzilla-shark for a number of physical features: 1) the dorsal fin spines on our shark are huge relative to the rest of the body, like those seen on the back of Godzilla, 2) Like Godzilla, it has broad, short and sharp teeth, rather than long needle-like teeth seen in other sharks of that same time period, 3) the body was largely covered by coarse dermal denticles, giving it almost a reptilian feel when you look at the fossil (like the skin of a gila monster), and 4) compared to the rest of the fish and other creatures found at the locality, its huge!"
He continued, "The average size fish (from the site) is just shy of being seven inches long. The largest shark fossil before the discovery of this new specimen was just shy of being a foot and a half long. Godzilla-shark was between seven to nine feet in length and would have terrorized the other relatively tiny critters of the locality."
Hodnett is an independent researcher with institutional ties to Northern Arizona University and the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science. He serendipitously came across the tip of the shark's nose, embedded in rock, while on a trip to the mountains. Its size, anatomy, age, and state of preservation make it a noteworthy discovery, in addition to the shark's resemblance to the fictional Godzilla.
Hodnett explained: "We are calling it Godzilla-shark for a number of physical features: 1) the dorsal fin spines on our shark are huge relative to the rest of the body, like those seen on the back of Godzilla, 2) Like Godzilla, it has broad, short and sharp teeth, rather than long needle-like teeth seen in other sharks of that same time period, 3) the body was largely covered by coarse dermal denticles, giving it almost a reptilian feel when you look at the fossil (like the skin of a gila monster), and 4) compared to the rest of the fish and other creatures found at the locality, its huge!"
He continued, "The average size fish (from the site) is just shy of being seven inches long. The largest shark fossil before the discovery of this new specimen was just shy of being a foot and a half long. Godzilla-shark was between seven to nine feet in length and would have terrorized the other relatively tiny critters of the locality."
SOURCE: Discovery
