'Godzilla' Shark Discovered in New Mexico Gets Formal Name
Voice of America
SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO - 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 spearlike 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.
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