Sharks Swarmed on Ancient Sea Monster

Discovery News ^ | Thursday, September 17, 2009 | Jennifer Viegas

[SunkenCiv]

Remains of a shark-bitten, 85-million-year-old plesiosaur reveal that around seven sharks likely consumed the enormous dinosaur-era marine reptile in a feeding frenzy, leaving some of their shark teeth stuck in the plesiosaur's bones, according to a new study... the first direct evidence of the diet and feeding behavior of Cretalamna appendiculata, a now-extinct early relative of today's great white sharks... lead author Kenshu Shimada describes as "arguably the most spectacular case of shark feeding on a vertebrate carcass reported to date." ...He and colleagues Takanobu Tsuihiji, Tamaki Sato and Yoshikazu Hasegawa analyzed the shark-decimated plesiosaur, Futabasaurus suzukii, which was unearthed in central Japan and then housed at the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo. They found five C. appendiculata teeth embedded in four different bones of the plesiosaur, and additionally discovered 80 associated teeth of this same shark species with the remains. The size and shape of the teeth indicate they belonged to both juvenile and adult sharks.

[SunkenCiv]

I have that one on DVD. ;’) He winds up using Bat Shark Repellent, somethin’ like that. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

That does, alas, make sense...

[SunkenCiv]

Must have smarted.

[Joe 6-pack]

"Jaws and his pals are why we never have to worry about Godzilla."

I think Jaws' grandpa would have been just as fearsome...

Carcharodon megalodon jaw...

...and artist's rendering for scale compared with a Great White (Carcharodon carcharias)...

[wbarmy]

You do know that the silt on the bottom of the ocean is not a organism or life free zone, but is home to myriads of scavengers which turn whatever hits the ocean floor into food, including the bones. The question I would put to the writer of the article is how did the fossil form in the first place?

[SunkenCiv]

Heh... Just one of those things, eh? Fossils are rare, so we’re told — yet the existence of fossil death assemblages (group of the same species, apparently simultaneously killed) suggest that *all* things that fossilize are immediately buried in a way that prevents complete reduction of the structure by putrefaction.

[Eaker]

Updated artist rendering .........

[Larry Lucido]

Ah, the dreaded Bigmacattackasaurus!

[cmsgop]

LOL,well done, now I’m hungry

[Joe 6-pack]

LOL...can haz cheeseburger.

[SunkenCiv]

Food chain update. ;’)