A 9-million-year-old ancestor inhabited the waters of the southern Pacific Ocean, where he liked to devour sardines.
Paleontologists in Peru have shown the world the 9-million-year-old fossil of an ancestor of the great white shark that once inhabited the waters of the southern Pacific Ocean, where it liked to devour sardines.
The nearly complete fossil of Cosmopolitodus Hastalis was found about 235 km south of Lima in Peru’s Pisco basin, a hot, desert area famous for frequent discoveries of ancient marine species.
This ancestor of the great white shark, now extinct, could grow up to 7 meters in length and had teeth that reached 8.9 cm, as demonstrated by Giant jaw with sharp teeth on display.
In the presentation to the public on January 20th, Cesar Augusto Chacaltana, engineer of the said the shark’s remains showed “exceptional fossilization.”
“Today, as it is National Paleontology Day in Peru, we present the fossils. In this case, the shark on display is an exceptional example of fossilization for the world. It is Cosmopolitodus hastalis, which is the grandfather of the current great white shark.”
Paleontologist Mario Urbina explained that it was possible to understand the diet of this sea predator.
“Inside, the contents of the stomach were found, many sardines. At that time, there were no anchovies, so it was sardines that constituted the essence of the diet of all marine animals.”
Peruvian paleontologists presented in November the fossil of a young crocodile that lived more than 10 million years ago in central Peru, where Pisco and the agricultural region of Ica are located.
In April last year, researchers displayed the fossilized skull of the largest dolphin known to date, which inhabited the Amazon around 16 million years ago.
