Giant predatory shark fossil unearthed in Kansas

bbc ^ | 24 February 2010 | Matt Walker

[JoeProBono]

The fossilised remains of a gigantic 10m-long predatory shark have been unearthed in Kansas, US.

Scientists dug up a gigantic jawbone, teeth and scales belonging to the shark which lived 89 million years ago. The bottom-dwelling predator had huge tooth plates, which it likely used to crush large shelled animals such as giant clams.

Palaeontologists already knew about the shark, but the new specimen suggests it was far bigger than previously thought.

The scientists who made the discovery, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, last week also released details of other newly discovered giant plankton-eating fish that swam in prehistoric seas for more than 100 million years.

The size of the jaw fragment in fact supports the contention that P. mortoni was a gigantic animal Dr Kenshu Shimada, DePaul University But this new fish, called Ptychodus mortoni, is both bigger and more fierce, having a taste for flesh rather than plankton.

It may even have been the largest shellfish-eating animal ever to have roamed the Earth.

[trumandogz]

An 89,000,000 year old shark, found right in the middle of a continent on a 5,794 year old Earth.

I’m so confused!

[Texas Jack]

I like global warming, otherwise much of the greatest nation on this planet would still be under a giant glacier.

Do tell...

Was listening to the news at noon and the weather guy said a coming snow storm is going to leave 3 feet of snow in New England. Those commies up there in Vermont, or is it New Hampshire, better crank up their Suburbans. Chuckle

[Texas Jack]

A few years back, I was down at about 80 feet on the outside of the reef that runs along the Caribbean trench about two miles off of Cozumel, just drifting with the current and looking at the coral when I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. When I turned and looked, it was three sharks. One was about 10 feet in length and only and 15 feet from me. They were swimming into the current looking for dinner. I almost crapped in my wet suit and used up most of my air trying to get back through the reef into the shallows.

Ahh, the good old days.

[JoeProBono]

[dmz]

After being in the Merchant Marines and 16 years in the Navy, I can say with all honesty.........
I hate the ocean!

<><><><><

LOL. You and my father would have gotten along famously. He enjoyed his time in the Navy so much he had us kids all rooting for Army during the Army Navy football games. And we are quite close to Annapolis.

[SunkenCiv]

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[wendy1946]

That one real??

[JoeProBono]

Which?

[ApplegateRanch]

Other feeding strategies like detritivory (eating stuff that is already dead) or herbivory, do not involve the killing of the eaten.

You mean those carrots in the salad I ate for dinner are STILL alive?!? I know they live a long time out of the ground, but I was certain that chopping followed by thorough mastication killed them.

But eating plankton, which is in part plants, DOES kill it? Now I'm really confused.

[ApplegateRanch]

THAT is going to require one HUMONGENORMOUS potato to make enough chips to serve with it!

[JoeProBono]

[stormer]

Often times the terms used to describe the natural world are a bit awkward for those of us removed from the acquisition of food. In the case of your carrot, the farmer would probably be referred to as the predator, but frankly I don't know if anyone has a good handle on where exactly in the harvesting process the carrot actually dies. But you and the farmer have entered into a relationship best defined as symbiotic mutualism - he preys on carrots, and you present him with gifts that he takes in exchange for the carrots - usually money, and often with intermediaries. Chimpanzees engage in this type of behavior (in that situation the gifts are often sexual favors exchanged for food - chimp prostitution - no intermediaries there). No doubt all the cyanobacteria contained within some plankton isn't destroyed as it passes through the gut of whatever predator it has had the misfortune to encounter, but it's probably safe to say that most is. Interestingly, one of the pioneers in the discovery of the relationship between cyanobacteria and algae was none other than Beatrix Potter, the creator of Peter Rabbit. Peter liked carrots, too - it was almost his downfall.

[stormer]

That’s one big-ass spud. Reminds me of the Octomom.

[ApplegateRanch]

Interesting; thanks. Been over 30 years since I had a class that even remotely covered such. And the Beatrix Potter tidbit was most interesting, too.

As for the carrot, with proper storage, they can live for months. If they still have the part of the greens on the top, you can trim & decapitate it, so to speak, and plant the top. You won’t really get a new long, fat carrot, but with proper care, being a bienniel, it may flower and produce seed.

OTOH, I always view cows not as herbivorous animals, but as a machine invented by bacteria to carry them around and feed them, then they use their waste products to power the cow.

Wish I could do the same for my vehicles. OTOH, a cow can’t do 0-60 in under 10 seconds, or carry over a ton of payload several hundred miles per day.

[ApplegateRanch]

That be one righteous tuber!

[wendy1946]

post 8

[stormer]

Interesting perspective regarding the humble cow; one I had not considered, but valid. Many organisms work to modify their own environments in order to increase the prospects for survivability of themselves or for the continuation of their genetic material. Bacteria are among the most ancient organisms on Earth and have had uncountable generations to perfect their survival strategies; could one of those include the creation of the cow? The implications for humans are... hmmm... I for one welcome our new bacterial overlords!

[Doulos1]

The world by wisdom knew not God.

[colorado tanker]

[JoeProBono]

COOL!