New species of Dinosaur-era Giant Shark discovered in Kansas by researchers

Scientists have recently discovered a new species of giant shark from the dinosaur era in Kansas. Researchers believe that this new shark is an ancient cousin of the sand tiger and great white sharks that we know today. It is believed that they have discovered the fossilised remains of another dinosaur-era creature belonging to the late Cretaceous period which was roughly 144 million to 66 million years ago.

A new species of shark

The new species that has been named Cretodus houghtonorum was discovered at a dig site in Kansas.
The fossil shark was discovered and excavated in 2010 by researchers Kenshu Shimada and Michael Everhart and two central Kansas residents, Fred Smith and Gail Pearson.

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The name houghtonorum is in honour of Keith and Deborah Houghton, the landowners who donated the specimen to the museum for science. While the skeleton is largely incomplete, it still represents the best Cretodus specimen that has been discovered in North America. The skeleton and remains that were excavated contain 134 teeth, 61 vertebrae, 23 placoid scales and fragments of calcified cartilage, which when analyzed by scientists provided a vast amount of biological information about the extinct shark.

The large body size of the shark and anatomical data leads researchers to believe that it may have been a sluggish shark and that it belonged to the group called Lamniformes. This group includes the modern-day sand tiger shark and the great white making them distant cousins.

All you need to know in the dental records

Most of what is known about the shark is deduced from its isolated teeth. Researchers during the course of the excavation stated that they discovered a specimen of Cretodus crassidens, a species originally found in England. But not even a single tooth matched the tooth shape of the original Cretodus crassidens specimen or any other known species of Cretodus. That is when they realized that they were dealing with a new species altogether. The researchers estimate that the shark could have reached up to about 22 feet.

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