SHARK-FORUM

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Sharks, dinos were both predators as well as each other's prey

Washington, July 13: Sharks and dinosaurs in prehistoric Europe served as prey for each other, according to a new review of vertebrate fossils found in the Galve region of Northeast Spain.

Palaeontologists found teeth from hybodont sharks - extinct, primitive shark-like fish in non-marine rocks in the region, which suggests that these fishes lived in rivers and lakes right inside dinosaur territory.

According to Darren Naish, a paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth, at least one group of dinosaurs, the spinosaurines, were equipped to take on these sharks.

These theropod dinos, which originated in Europe, had "long skulls, retracted nostrils, and unusual, semi-conical teeth," good for grabbing land prey as well as fish, including small sharks, he said.

However, for swimming dinosaurs other than spinosaurines, the "hybodonts would presumably have been a hazard that they (dinosaurs) would have wanted to avoid," he said.

"Dinosaur carcasses washed down rivers and into the sea were often scavenged by sharks," Discovery News quoted him as saying.

The findings were recently published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

Quelle: DailyIndia

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