Gigantic Shark Texas, According to a new report published in Plos One, a monster shark the size of a two-story building lurked the shallow seas 100 million years prior, new fossils uncover.
The massive fish, Leptostyrax macrorhiza, would have been one of the largest predators of its day, and may push back scientists' estimates of when such huge ruthless sharks developed, said study co-creator Joseph Frederickson, a doctoral applicant in nature and developmental science at the University of Oklahoma.
The antiquated sea monster was discovered unintentionally. Frederickson, who was then an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, had started a beginner fossil science club to study novel fossil deposits. In 2009, the club took an outing to the Duck Creek Formation, just outside Fort Worth, Texas, which contains heap marine invertebrate fossils, such as the extinct squidlike creatures known as ammonites. Around 100 million years prior the territory was a piece of a shallow sea known as the Western Interior Seaway that split North America in two and spanned from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic, Frederickson said.
While walking in the development, Frederickson's then-sweetheart (now wife), University of Oklahoma humanities doctoral hopeful Janessa Doucette-Frederickson, stumbled more than a stone and saw a substantial vertebra sticking out of the ground. In the long run, the group uncovered three substantial vertebrae, each around 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) in distance across. [See Images of Ancient Monsters of the Sea]
"You can grasp one," however then nothing else will fit, Frederickson told Live Science.The vertebrae had stacks of lines called lamellae around the outside, suggesting the bones once had a place with an expansive scientific classification of sharks called lamniformes that includes sand tiger sharks, incredible white sharks, goblin sharks and others, Frederickson said.
Subsequent to poring over the writing, Frederickson discovered a description of a similar shark vertebra that was unearthed in 1997 in the Kiowa Shale in Kansas, which also dates to around 100 million years prior. That vertebra originated from a shark that was up to 32 feet (9.8 meters) in length.
By comparing the new vertebra with the one from Kansas, the group closed the Texas shark was likely the same species as the Kansas specimen. The Texan could have been no less than 20.3 feet (6.2 m) long, however that is a conservative estimate, Frederickson said. (Still, the Texas shark would have been no match for the biggest shark that ever lived, the 60-foot-long, or 18 m, Megalodon.)
By analyzing similar ecosystems from the Mesozoic Era, the group finished up the sharks in both Texas and Kansas were presumably Leptostyrax macrorhiza. Previously, the main fossils from Leptostyraxthat paleontologists had found were teeth, making it difficult to gage the shark's actual size. The new study, which was published Wednesday in the diary PLOS ONE, suggests this animal was much greater than previously suspected, Frederickson said.
Still, its not certain the new vertebrae fit in with Leptostyrax, said Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in Chicago, who unearthed the 1997 shark vertebra.
"It is also altogether possible that they may fit in with an extinct shark with small teeth so far not perceived in the present fossil record," Shimada, who was not involved in the present study, told Live Science. "Case in point, some of the largest advanced sharks are tiny fish feeding forms with minute teeth, such as the whale shark, basking shark and megamouth shark."
Either way, the new finds change the photo of the Early Cretaceous seas.
Previously, researchers thought the main genuinely massive predators of the day were the fearsome pliosaurs, since quite a while ago necked, since quite a while ago snouted relatives to advanced lizards that could develop to almost 40 feet (12 m) in length. Presently, it seems the oceans were teeming with enough life to support no less than two top predators, Frederickson said.
As for the antiquated shark's feeding habits, they may resemble those of cutting edge incredible white sharks, who "eat whatever fits in their mouth," Frederickson said. On the off chance that these old sea monsters were similar, they may have nourished on vast fish, child pliosaurs, marine reptiles and even full-developed pliosaurs that they scavenged, Frederickson said.
The massive fish, Leptostyrax macrorhiza, would have been one of the largest predators of its day, and may push back scientists' estimates of when such huge ruthless sharks developed, said study co-creator Joseph Frederickson, a doctoral applicant in nature and developmental science at the University of Oklahoma.
The antiquated sea monster was discovered unintentionally. Frederickson, who was then an undergrad at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, had started a beginner fossil science club to study novel fossil deposits. In 2009, the club took an outing to the Duck Creek Formation, just outside Fort Worth, Texas, which contains heap marine invertebrate fossils, such as the extinct squidlike creatures known as ammonites. Around 100 million years prior the territory was a piece of a shallow sea known as the Western Interior Seaway that split North America in two and spanned from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic, Frederickson said.
While walking in the development, Frederickson's then-sweetheart (now wife), University of Oklahoma humanities doctoral hopeful Janessa Doucette-Frederickson, stumbled more than a stone and saw a substantial vertebra sticking out of the ground. In the long run, the group uncovered three substantial vertebrae, each around 4.5 inches (11.4 centimeters) in distance across. [See Images of Ancient Monsters of the Sea]
"You can grasp one," however then nothing else will fit, Frederickson told Live Science.The vertebrae had stacks of lines called lamellae around the outside, suggesting the bones once had a place with an expansive scientific classification of sharks called lamniformes that includes sand tiger sharks, incredible white sharks, goblin sharks and others, Frederickson said.
Subsequent to poring over the writing, Frederickson discovered a description of a similar shark vertebra that was unearthed in 1997 in the Kiowa Shale in Kansas, which also dates to around 100 million years prior. That vertebra originated from a shark that was up to 32 feet (9.8 meters) in length.
By comparing the new vertebra with the one from Kansas, the group closed the Texas shark was likely the same species as the Kansas specimen. The Texan could have been no less than 20.3 feet (6.2 m) long, however that is a conservative estimate, Frederickson said. (Still, the Texas shark would have been no match for the biggest shark that ever lived, the 60-foot-long, or 18 m, Megalodon.)
By analyzing similar ecosystems from the Mesozoic Era, the group finished up the sharks in both Texas and Kansas were presumably Leptostyrax macrorhiza. Previously, the main fossils from Leptostyraxthat paleontologists had found were teeth, making it difficult to gage the shark's actual size. The new study, which was published Wednesday in the diary PLOS ONE, suggests this animal was much greater than previously suspected, Frederickson said.
Still, its not certain the new vertebrae fit in with Leptostyrax, said Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in Chicago, who unearthed the 1997 shark vertebra.
"It is also altogether possible that they may fit in with an extinct shark with small teeth so far not perceived in the present fossil record," Shimada, who was not involved in the present study, told Live Science. "Case in point, some of the largest advanced sharks are tiny fish feeding forms with minute teeth, such as the whale shark, basking shark and megamouth shark."
Either way, the new finds change the photo of the Early Cretaceous seas.
Previously, researchers thought the main genuinely massive predators of the day were the fearsome pliosaurs, since quite a while ago necked, since quite a while ago snouted relatives to advanced lizards that could develop to almost 40 feet (12 m) in length. Presently, it seems the oceans were teeming with enough life to support no less than two top predators, Frederickson said.
As for the antiquated shark's feeding habits, they may resemble those of cutting edge incredible white sharks, who "eat whatever fits in their mouth," Frederickson said. On the off chance that these old sea monsters were similar, they may have nourished on vast fish, child pliosaurs, marine reptiles and even full-developed pliosaurs that they scavenged, Frederickson said.
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