Tag: sharks
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PBS Eons: That Time Sharks Got Weird
PBS Eons has a new episode. This one is about the “Age of Sharks” or should it be the “Age of Weird Sharks”. Long before the rise of the great whites and hammerheads we know today, sharks and their cartilaginous relatives ruled Earth’s oceans and rivers in astonishing variety. It was the golden age of…
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Throwback Thursday #275: Field Museum Shark Week!
This is Throwback Thursday #275. In these, we look back into the past at ESCONI specifically and Earth Science in general. If you have any contributions, (science, pictures, stories, etc …), please send them to esconi.info@gmail.com. Thanks! email:esconi.info@gmail.com. —————————————————– The Discovery Channel does “Shark Week” every year during the last week of July… that’s this…
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Chimaeropsis paradoxa Zittel, 1887 (Myriacanthoidei, Holocephali) from the Late Jurassic of Solnhofen
Bruce and Rene’ Lauer of the Lauer Foundation have co-authored another research paper, with lead author Christopher J. Duffin from the Natural History Museum in London – Department of Earth Sciences as the lead author. The study looked at Chimaeropsis paradoxa which is a holocephalian, a lesser-known group of ancient sharks. The paper was recently…
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Paper: New Janassid Petalodontiform (Chondrichthyes) teeth from the Late Carboniferous of Kansas, USA
Bruce and Rene’ Lauer have been very busy. They are listed as co-authors of a new paper about shark teeth from the Late Carboniferous of Kansas – “New Janassid Petalodontiform (Chondrichthyes) teeth from the Late Carboniferous of Kansas, USA”. The paper was published in the jounal Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie. Abstract An associated…
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Paleontologists Discover Two New Shark Species From Fossils in Mammoth Cave National Park
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about a new fossil discovery. Two new shark species from the Carboniferous have been described from Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Troglocladodus trimblei and Glikmanius careforum lived during the Carboniferous Period some 325 million yerars ago. Both measured about 10 to 12 feet long. The paper “Sharks in the dark:…
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CBC Quirks & Quarks: Megalodon was enormous — but perhaps less husky than we’d thought
CBC Radio’s Quirks & Quarks has a segment about megalodon. A new paper in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica reveals that may not have been as robust as previously thought. The extinct shark megalodon was likely the largest predatory shark to ever swim the oceans, but a new reconstruction suggests it was not quite the behemoth…
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Shark Teeth from the Bond Formation in northern Illinois
The journal Kentiana has a paper about fossil shark teeth from the Bond Formation in northern Illinois. The title of the paper is “First records of the chondrichthyans Heslerodus and Ossianodus from the Upper Pennsylvanian LaSalle Limestone (Bond Formation) of northern Illinois”. Kentiana is an open access journal associated with the Center for Paleontology, the Illinois…
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New analysis of tooth minerals confirms megalodon shark was warm-blooded
Phys.org has an article about Megalodon. Otodus megalodon, which means “big tooth”, was a very large shark that lived from the Oligocene 28 million years ago up to the Pliocene, just 3.6 million years ago. O. megalodon is classified as a mackerel shark, which is not closely related to the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. …
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Massive graveyard of fossilized shark teeth found deep in the Indian Ocean
LiveScience has a story about the recent discovery of a massive shark tooth deposit in the Indian Ocean. In October 2022, researchers about the RV Investigator made an unexpected discovery. During a month long expedition, while trawling for fish for an deep water biodiversity survey, the trawling net pulled up hundreds of shark teeth. The…
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Sharks are older than the dinosaurs. What’s the secret to their success?
Live Science has a shark story just in time for Shark Week. Yes, you read that correctly… sharks are much older than dinosaurs. Sharks evolved way back during the Ordovician Period, some 450 million years ago, while dinosaurs are relative youngsters at about 235 million years old. Sharks have made it though all the major…
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NYT: Megalodons vs. Great White Sharks? We Know Which Predator Won.
The Trilobites column of the New York Times has a story about sharks… big sharks. Otodus megalodon, commonly referred to as Megalodon, is regarded as one of the largest predators that ever lived. Estimates of its size extrapolated from teeth put it at between 46 and 67 feet (14 – 20.3 meters). A new paper in…
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PBS Eons: Sharks nearly went extinct 19 million years ago
PBS Eons has a new #shorts episode. This one is about a time when sharks almost went extinct about 19 million years ago. There used to be SO MANY sharks…where did they go? References: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/s…
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Puzzling Extinction Event Decimated Sharks 19 Million Years Ago
SciTechDaily has an article about a shark extinction, which took place about 19 million years ago during the early Miocene. A new study published in the journal Science looked at shark diversity over the last 40 million years and found an extinction event that reduced shark diversity by about 90%. In a related Perspective…
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Phys.org: Fossil of ancient squid eating a crustacean while being eaten by an ancient shark
Phys.org has a story about a very strange and rare fossil. It’s sort of the turducken of the fossil world. In this case, researchers described a fossil, which dates to the Jurassic Period about 180 million years ago, of a belemnite eating a crustacean, which was in turn being eaten by a shark. The description…
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Smithsonian: Discovery of a 95-Million-Year-Old ‘Eagle Shark’ Fossil Makes Waves
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about an interesting new shark fossil. The eagle shark, Aquilolomna milarcae, lived about 95 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now northeastern Mexico. It was found in 2012 by a quarry worker in the Vallecillo limestone quarry. The animal was about 5.4 feet long and 6…
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Megalodons, the Ocean’s Most Ferocious Prehistoric Predators, Raised Their Young in Nurseries
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about Megalodon sharks. A new paper in the journal Biology Letters raised their your in nurseries like many modern day sharks. Otodus megalodon was probably the largest predatory shark that every lived. It ruled the oceans ruled from 23 to 3.6 million years ago. Nurseries provide a safe haven for baby…
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NPS.gov: Sharks, Fossils, and Caves: Secrets Revealed at Mammoth Cave
NPS.gov has a story about some remarkable new fossil discoveries in Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. The fossils date to the Mississippian Period about 325 million years ago and reveal a very diverse shark fauna. There are 40 species of shark, which includes six new species. The painting above and new information are being presented as…
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Jaw of 330-Million-Year-Old Shark Discovered in Kentucky Cave
The Smithsonian Magazine has a article about the accidental discovery of a fossil shark in Mammoth Cave. The shark, Savivodus striatus, lived during the late Mississippian Period, about 330 million years ago. This shark was probably about 20 feet long, but are known to be more than 30 feet long. n November 2019, paleontologist John-Paul…
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A Kansas Find Reveals A 17-foot, Previously Unknown, Long-Extinct Shark Species
NPR has a story about the discovery of a new species of shark from Kansas. This animal, Cretodus, lived about 91 million years ago in the Western Interior Seaway. It measured about 17 feet long. Read all the details in a paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. GARDEN CITY, Kansas — Paleontologist Mike Everhart…
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SciNews: Paleontologists Identify Oldest Known Ancestor of Mackerel Sharks
SciNews has an article about the ancestor of Mackerel sharks. The article is from earlier this month, but posting it seems appropriate with Shark Week occurring this week. An ancestor of the Great White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has been found. Palearocarcharias stromeri was a small benthic shark, which lived about 165 million years ago, during…
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PBS Eons: Why Megalodon (Definitely) Went Extinct
Check out the new episode of PBS Eons over on YouTube. It’s about Megalodon and why it really is extinct. Don’t believe what you see during Shark Week! For more than 10 million years, Megalodon was at the top of its game as the oceans’ apex predator…until 2.6 million years ago, when it went…
