The “Godzilla” shark discovered in New Mexico received its official name

Shark teeth 300 million years they were the first sign that it could be a different species. They were less like the rows of lance-shaped teeth of related species. They were shorter, about 2 centimeters.

“Excellent for catching and crushing preys instead of piercing them»Said the discoverer John-Paul Hodnett, who was a graduate student when he unearthed the first shark fossils in a dig east of Albuquerque in 2013.

This week, Hodnett and a host of other researchers have published their findings in a bulletin from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science identifying the shark as a distinct species.

He called the 6.7 foot (2 meter) “monster” Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or “Hoffman’s Dragon Shark”In honor of the New Mexico family who owns the land in the Manzano Mountains, where the fossils were found. Hodnett said the area is riddled with fossils and is easily accessible.

The name is also reminiscent of the dragon-shaped jaw line and 2.5-foot (0.75-meter) fin thorns that inspired the discovery’s original nickname, “Godzilla Shark“.

Official name announcement follows seven years of excavation, preservation and study.

The 12 rows of teeth in the shark’s lower jaw, for example, were still obscured by layers of sediment after excavation. Hodnett only saw them using a tilted light technique that illuminates the objects below..

Hodnett is now the paleontologist and the Dinosaur Park Program Coordinator for the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission in Laurel, Maryland. His fellow researchers come from the New Mexico Museum, as well as St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, Northern Arizona University, and Idaho State University.

The recovered fossil skeleton is considered the most complete of its evolutionary branch, which separated from modern sharks and rays about 390 million years ago and went extinct about 60 million years later.

At the time, eastern New Mexico was covered by a seaway that stretched deep into North America. Hodnett and his colleagues believe Hoffman’s dragon shark likely lived in schools along the coast, stalking prey such as crustaceans, fish and other sharks.

The desert highlands of New Mexico have also produced many dinosaur fossils, including several species of tyrannosaurs that roamed the earth millions of years ago when it was a rainforest.

(With AP information)

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