A glass - bottom sauceboat during the Cretaceous would ’ve been quite the heroic daytime out , if not a lilliputian bad . As ifmosasaursandplesiosaursweren’t cool enough , a Modern study put out in the journalSciencehas unveiled another bizarre wolf you might spot on such a stumble : an bird of Jove shark . draw a blank the feathers and the talon , these sharks are so named for their tremendous wingspread , which in the studied specimen was wider than the shark was long .
The raw mintage — known only from fossil evidence ( good luck next time , eagle shark enthusiast ) — has been namedAquilolamna milarcae , and represents a novel phratry in the history of shark . A bit likemanta rays , these eagle sharks were match with telling pectoral 5 — sort of like wings — which in the studied specimen sweep 1.9 metre ( 6.2 infantry ) despite the entire fauna being just 1.65 meter ( 5.4 feet ) long . The description may bring to mind a horrendous piranha , but given its massive mouth and teeny midget teeth , the researchers think it was most probable a filter feeder .
A. milarcaeis thought to have been zoom around the ocean around 93 million year ago , joining the Cretaceous critters in the pee of the Gulf of Mexico . It shares some lineament with extant pelagic sharks , sporting a caudal fin ( tail ) with a well - developed superior lobe as seen in whale and Panthera tigris sharks . It therefore anatomically reads like achimera , in combining trait of both sharks and rays .
Prior to this specimen ’s designation and description , it had been think that there was only one large plankton - feeding kinsfolk scoop out up food in the Cretaceous waters : the pachycormidae , an extinct group of large bony Pisces the Fishes . The eagle sharks have now swoop in as 2d on the filter - feed leaderboard .
The international enquiry squad led by Romain Vullo of the French National Centre for Scientific Research ( CNRS ) come across the complete specimen in Vallecillo , Mexico , back in 2012 . The smirch is known for its remarkably well - preserved ancient fossils , having delivered many ammonites , bony fish , and other marine reptile to the hands of woozy scientists . Findings from the web site have therefore been of peachy academic time value as is thisA. milarcaespecimen , representing a new and little - known chapter in sharks ' evolutionary history .
