300 million-year-old ‘Godzilla shark’ gets formal name
- First discovered in New Mexico, Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or Hoffman’s Dragon Shark, has now been identified as a distinct species
- The ancient marine creature got its nickname for its long fin spines
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 spear-like rows of teeth of related species. They were squatter and shorter, less than an inch long, around 2cm.
“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.
He named the two-metre monster Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or Hoffman’s Dragon Shark, in honour of the New Mexico family that owns the land in the Manzano Mountains where the fossils were found.
Hodnett says the area is rife with fossils and easy to access because of a quarry and other commercial digging operations.
The name also hearkens to the dragon-like jawline and 75cm fin spines that inspired the discovery’s initial nickname, “Godzilla Shark”.