teeth? Scientists find mysterious objects in the Indian Ocean; know more

months later Meet strange creaturesNational Science Agency Australia (CSIRO) discovered new surprises in the depths of the abyss of water: a graveyard of sharks with many fossilized teeth, dating back millions of years.

Originally , researchers They thought they fell from a network I filled in sediments and manganese nodules, until they were better analyzed.

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“It was really incredible,” Diane Bray, head of the Museum of Victoria’s Collections Research Institute, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). “It’s not all fossils, some of them are from new mako sharks and two species of great white shark relatives.

More than 750 mineralized teeth, representing a variety of predatory species, were transported from a depth of 5.4 kilometers. Western Australian Museum of Fish curator Glenn Moore says the discovery is an interesting mix of old and new shark parts, including some ancestors of the megalodon.

“This shark evolved into Megalodon, which was the largest of all sharks, but it went extinct about 3.5 million years ago,” Moore said.

The megalodon was so huge that it could have swallowed the largest living shark, the great white shark, whole.

Since sharks have more cartilage in their skeleton than bone, most of their remains decomposed before they became fossilized, with the exception of their teeth and transverse scales. These remains are the only clues we have about these ancient animals from their 450 million years of history on Earth.

Why so many of these remains, spanning such a long period of history, were collected in one place is uncertain.

“I don’t know of any clear explanation as to why they’re all together, other than maybe it’s a low point on the ocean floor, so they’ll eventually go down,” Moore told Newsweek.

A graveyard of sharks has been found during an investigation of two new marine parks located 2,500km off the west coast of Australia.

The CSIRO research vessel that found the burial site has embarked on another voyage, this time to Gascoyne Marine Park in Western Australia, where the ship has also come across a new species of shark.

“At the start of the trip, we collected an impressive baby shark,” Ciro ichthyologist Will White said in a statement.

This species is unique to Australia but has not yet been described and named. The sample we collect will be very important to science because we will use it to describe the species.”

Sharks we already know tend to hide among rocks and seaweed on the shallow sea floor during the day, emerging at night to feed.

They also lay eggs particularly corkscrew-shaped. But this new species has been found in waters deeper than 150 meters, where there is no cover like seaweed.

“It is estimated that about a third of species collected on Trailer Investigator’s recent biodiversity survey trips may be new to science,” says marine ecologist and CSIRO Expedition Leader John Kessing in a statement.

“The discoveries we’re making aren’t just about new species. These trips give us the opportunity to learn more about marine ecosystems, as well as the abundance and behavior of species.”

with information from Science alert

Featured image: Shayi Kai/Museums Victoria

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