In this undated photo provided by John-Paul Hodnett is a row of teeth on the lower jaw of a 300 million year old shark species named this week after an almost complete skeleton of the species in 2013 in New Mexico. Discoverer Hodnett says it was the short, squeaky teeth that first warned him that the specimen initially called ‘Godzilla Shark’ could be a species different from the old cousins, which have longer, more spear-like teeth. The image was taken using angular lighting techniques that reveal fossil features beneath the sediment. (John-Paul Hodnett via AP)
The 300-million-year-old shark teeth were the first sign that it could be a distinct species.
The old chompers looked less like the spear-like rows of teeth of related species. They were sticky and shorter, less than an inch long, about 2 inches.
“Great to grab and crush prey rather than pierce prey,” says explorer John-Paul Hodnett, who was a graduate student when he excavated the shark’s first fossils in 2013 east of Albuquerque.
This week, Hodnett and a host of other researchers published their findings in a bulletin from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science identifying the shark as a separate species.
He names the 2.7-meter monster Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or Hoffman’s Dragon Shark, in honor of the New Mexico family who own the land in the Manzano Mountains where the fossils were found. Hodnett says the area is full of fossils and easily accessible due to a quarry and other commercial excavations.
The name also comes from the dragon-like jaw and 0.75 meter finches that inspired the original nickname “Godzilla Shark”.
The formal announcement of naming follows seven years of excavation, preservation and study.
The twelve rows of teeth on the shark’s lower jaw, for example, were still excavated by layers of sediment. Hodnett only saw them using an angled light technique that illuminated objects below.
Hodnett is now the paleontologist and program coordinator for the Dinosaur Park of the Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission in Laurel, Maryland. His fellow researchers come from the New Mexico Museum, as well as the St. Joseph’s University in Pennsylvania, Northern Arizona University and Idaho State University.
The recovered fossil skeleton is considered to be the most complete of its evolutionary branch – ctenacanth – which separated from modern sharks and rays about 390 million years ago and became extinct about 60 million years later.
At the time, eastern New Mexico was covered by a sea route that stretched deep into North America. Hodnett and his colleagues believe that Hoffman’s dragon shark probably lived in the plain along the coast and preyed on crustaceans, fish and other sharks.
The high desert plateaus in New Mexico also produced many dinosaur fossils, including various species of tyrannosaurus that roamed the country millions of years ago when it was a tropical rainforest.
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