Researchers recently made what they believe to be groundbreaking discoveries about a massive prehistoric shark. Ptychodus, a prehistoric creature, swam in the seas between 105 million and 75 million years ago, according to The Guardian.
Experts discovered these unprecedented findings by analyzing six Ptychodus specimens that lived 93 million years ago. All observations on these six specimens have been documented in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
The specimens were collected from small quarries in northeastern Mexico. The majority of the remains discovered in the area were ‘complete’, which is unusual for experts to come across. This is because the bones of this shark were made of cartilage, which does not thrive in the earth’s environment.
As a result, researchers have mostly discovered Ptychodus fossils consisting of gigantic teeth, making it difficult for experts to understand what these creatures looked like.
“Its general appearance has remained a mystery up to now due to a lack of more complete material over nearly two centuries,” said Dr. Romain Vullo, first author of the study from the University of Rennes. “The discovery of the new specimens from Vallecillo, revealing the body shape and anatomy of this extinct shark, solves this enigma.”
Knewz.com reported that the findings would also help experts correctly place Ptychodus in the evolutionary family tree. One of the six fossils revealed a complete side of the prehistoric shark.
It included all of the creature’s skeletal elements, including teeth and muscle remains, as well as a fin-shaped body outline. Three specimens were nearly complete, with one identified as a juvenile Ptychodus.
The two that remained were incomplete. “Ptychodus was generally thought to be morphologically similar to benthic sharks like the modern nurse shark, but we now know that it looked like the extant porbeagle shark, a fast-swimming pelagic form,” says Vullo.
Analysis revealed that the prehistoric shark was a hybrid of the extinct giant shark Megalodon and the great white shark. The physical characteristics of the specimens, as well as their thick vertebral column, indicate that the shark was a fast swimmer.
The prehistoric beast’s massive pavement-like teeth indicate that it primarily fed on shelled creatures. Experts concluded that Ptychodus hunted in open water and ate a diet rich in sea turtles and ammonites. This called into question the previous assumption that these sharks ate seafloor creatures such as clams.
According to the specimens, Ptychodus grew to a length of approximately 9.7 meters. This makes it larger than today’s great white shark, but it falls short of previous estimates that claimed the creature grew to 10 meters.
The study also suggests that the prehistoric shark became extinct due to competition with other creatures for similar prey. This is a significant discovery because many modern shark species are in danger of extinction.
“Ptychodus provides us with a mirror that shows us what will happen to large apex predators such as the white shark if we, as their main competitor, do not rethink our actions,” said Patrick L Jambura, a fossil fish expert at the University of Vienna who was not involved in the study.