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Fossil of 'long-winged' shark discovered

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  • Fossil of 'long-winged' shark discovered

    So what would it look like if a Manta Ray and a shark produced offspring? Probably something sort of like this


    So what in the world is that?

    It is a reconstruction of a nearly complete fossil of a bizarre shark that lived some 93 mya (Late Cretaceous) from a limestone quarry in what is now Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico that was some 1.65 meters (under 5½') long but with pectoral fins that were roughly 1.9 meters (a couples inches over 6") wide. This marks the first time a body plan with such long pectoral fins has been found in sharks.

    The shark, which has been named Aquilolamna milarcae, nicknamed "eagle shark," was likely a slow moving planktivorous filter-feeder (like modern whale sharks and basking sharks) that more glided through the water than actively swam where the elongated pectoral fins, according to vertebrate paleontologist Romain Vullo from France's National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Rennes (who lead the team of researchers who described the creature), "mainly acted as an effective stabilizer."

    "You could make the analogy of a glider... it wasn't at all adapted to swimming fast and following prey," Vullo observed.

    And while the body is similar to the torpedo-shaped one commonly seen on sharks, its head was broad (necessary to gather sufficient plankton through filter feeding). The tail, while distinctly shark-like as well, is typical of those found on sharks that don't rely on speed to eat.

    Aquilolamna lived in the open ocean at a time when it was populated with marine reptiles, squid relatives with large shells called ammonites, various bony fishes, and large sharks like the 6 meter long Cretoxyrhina.

    I should note that actual manta rays don't appear in the fossil record until the Oligocene, a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period, which ran from 33.9 to 23 mya. Sharks and rays are completely different groups -- neither evolved from the other.

    Source: Bizarre ancient shark glided through the sea with lengthy wing-like fins




    About 93 million years ago, a bizarre plankton-eating shark shaped unlike any other known marine creature glided through the sea in what is now northeastern Mexico using curiously elongated wing-like fins that rendered its body wider than it was long.

    Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of a nearly complete fossil of the shark, called Aquilolamna milarcae, that lived during the Cretaceous Period at a time when dinosaurs ruled the land.

    Its unusual proportions – a fin span of about 6-1/4 feet and a length from head to tail of about 5-1/2 feet – left the scientists amazed.

    Aquilolamna’s name means “eagle shark,” a nod to its slender pectoral fins, which “mainly acted as an effective stabilizer,” according to vertebrate paleontologist Romain Vullo, lead author of the study published in the journal Science.

    “Many adjectives can be used to describe this shark: unusual, unique, extraordinary, bizarre, weird. Yes, it is the only shark that is wider than long,” said Vullo, affiliated with Geosciences Rennes, a research unit involving the University of Rennes and France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

    “Aquilolamna is indeed a perfect example of an extinct creature revealing an unexpected new morphology. This strongly suggests that other outstanding body shapes and morphological adaptations may have existed through the evolutionary history of sharks,” Vullo said.

    Like all sharks and the related skates and rays, Aquilolamna had a cartilaginous skeleton. It had the familiar torpedo-shaped body and tail of a shark but its pectoral fins were utterly unique. The researchers said Aquilolamna appears to have been a slow-swimming shark that fed on plankton through filter-feeding, as plankton-eating whale sharks and basking sharks do today.

    The fossil, unearthed in Mexico’s state of Nuevo Leon, did not reveal Aquilolamna’s filter mechanism for eating.

    Rays such as the manta ray, with their flattened bodies and large pectoral fins fused all the way to the head, swim through the water as if they are flying through the air. Aquilolamna appears to have done something similar.




    Source

    © Copyright Original Source






    Here is the abstract from the paper, Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans:

    Abstract

    The ecomorphological diversity of extinct elasmobranchs is incompletely known. Here, we describe Aquilolamna milarcae, a bizarre probable planktivorous shark from early Late Cretaceous open marine deposits in Mexico. Aquilolamna, tentatively assigned to Lamniformes, is characterized by hypertrophied, slender pectoral fins. This previously unknown body plan represents an unexpected evolutionary experimentation with underwater flight among sharks, more than 30 million years before the rise of manta and devil rays (Mobulidae), and shows that winglike pectoral fins have evolved independently in two distantly related clades of filter-feeding elasmobranchs. This newly described group of highly specialized long-winged sharks (Aquilolamnidae) displays an aquilopelagic-like ecomorphotype and may have occupied, in late Mesozoic seas, the ecological niche filled by mobulids and other batoids after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary.

    Last edited by rogue06; 03-23-2021, 12:53 PM. Reason: tail not tale

    I'm always still in trouble again

    "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
    "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
    "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

  • #2
    Flying sharks? Shades of Sharknado, Batman!

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Sparko View Post
      Flying sharks? Shades of Sharknado, Batman!
      The first thing I thought when I saw the first story on it was of early sharks acting like flying fish and gliding through the air for a good bit.

      But if we can get sharks flying then all we need are the lasers coming out of there eyeballs (not the dime store knock offs discussed here)

      I'm always still in trouble again

      "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
      "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
      "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by rogue06 View Post
        So what would it look like if a Manta Ray and a shark produced offspring? Probably something sort of like this


        So what in the world is that?

        It is a reconstruction of a nearly complete fossil of a bizarre shark that lived some 93 mya (Late Cretaceous) from a limestone quarry in what is now Nuevo León in northeastern Mexico that was some 1.65 meters (under 5½') long but with pectoral fins that were roughly 1.9 meters (a couples inches over 6") wide. This marks the first time a body plan with such long pectoral fins has been found in sharks.

        The shark, which has been named Aquilolamna milarcae, nicknamed "eagle shark," was likely a slow moving planktivorous filter-feeder (like modern whale sharks and basking sharks) that more glided through the water than actively swam where the elongated pectoral fins, according to vertebrate paleontologist Romain Vullo from France's National Centre for Scientific Research and the University of Rennes (who lead the team of researchers who described the creature), "mainly acted as an effective stabilizer."

        "You could make the analogy of a glider... it wasn't at all adapted to swimming fast and following prey," Vullo observed.

        And while the body is similar to the torpedo-shaped one commonly seen on sharks, its head was broad (necessary to gather sufficient plankton through filter feeding). The tail, while distinctly shark-like as well, is typical of those found on sharks that don't rely on speed to eat.

        Aquilolamna lived in the open ocean at a time when it was populated with marine reptiles, squid relatives with large shells called ammonites, various bony fishes, and large sharks like the 6 meter long Cretoxyrhina.

        I should note that actual manta rays don't appear in the fossil record until the Oligocene, a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period, which ran from 33.9 to 23 mya. Sharks and rays are completely different groups -- neither evolved from the other.

        Source: Bizarre ancient shark glided through the sea with lengthy wing-like fins




        About 93 million years ago, a bizarre plankton-eating shark shaped unlike any other known marine creature glided through the sea in what is now northeastern Mexico using curiously elongated wing-like fins that rendered its body wider than it was long.

        Scientists on Thursday announced the discovery of a nearly complete fossil of the shark, called Aquilolamna milarcae, that lived during the Cretaceous Period at a time when dinosaurs ruled the land.

        Its unusual proportions – a fin span of about 6-1/4 feet and a length from head to tail of about 5-1/2 feet – left the scientists amazed.

        Aquilolamna’s name means “eagle shark,” a nod to its slender pectoral fins, which “mainly acted as an effective stabilizer,” according to vertebrate paleontologist Romain Vullo, lead author of the study published in the journal Science.

        “Many adjectives can be used to describe this shark: unusual, unique, extraordinary, bizarre, weird. Yes, it is the only shark that is wider than long,” said Vullo, affiliated with Geosciences Rennes, a research unit involving the University of Rennes and France’s National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).

        “Aquilolamna is indeed a perfect example of an extinct creature revealing an unexpected new morphology. This strongly suggests that other outstanding body shapes and morphological adaptations may have existed through the evolutionary history of sharks,” Vullo said.

        Like all sharks and the related skates and rays, Aquilolamna had a cartilaginous skeleton. It had the familiar torpedo-shaped body and tail of a shark but its pectoral fins were utterly unique. The researchers said Aquilolamna appears to have been a slow-swimming shark that fed on plankton through filter-feeding, as plankton-eating whale sharks and basking sharks do today.

        The fossil, unearthed in Mexico’s state of Nuevo Leon, did not reveal Aquilolamna’s filter mechanism for eating.

        Rays such as the manta ray, with their flattened bodies and large pectoral fins fused all the way to the head, swim through the water as if they are flying through the air. Aquilolamna appears to have done something similar.




        Source

        © Copyright Original Source






        Here is the abstract from the paper, Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans:

        Abstract

        The ecomorphological diversity of extinct elasmobranchs is incompletely known. Here, we describe Aquilolamna milarcae, a bizarre probable planktivorous shark from early Late Cretaceous open marine deposits in Mexico. Aquilolamna, tentatively assigned to Lamniformes, is characterized by hypertrophied, slender pectoral fins. This previously unknown body plan represents an unexpected evolutionary experimentation with underwater flight among sharks, more than 30 million years before the rise of manta and devil rays (Mobulidae), and shows that winglike pectoral fins have evolved independently in two distantly related clades of filter-feeding elasmobranchs. This newly described group of highly specialized long-winged sharks (Aquilolamnidae) displays an aquilopelagic-like ecomorphotype and may have occupied, in late Mesozoic seas, the ecological niche filled by mobulids and other batoids after the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary.
        Reading a bit more on this, until the discovery of Aquilolamna (apparently "eagle shark" in French), scientists had only known of one group of large plankton-eaters back during the Cretaceous -- an extinct group of fish called pachycormids, noted for their serrated pectoral fins and bony rostrum. This discovery reveals that there would have been at least one other filter-feeder in the waters of this period.

        I'm always still in trouble again

        "You're by far the worst poster on TWeb" and "TWeb's biggest liar" --starlight (the guy who says Stalin was a right-winger)
        "Overall I would rate the withdrawal from Afghanistan as by far the best thing Biden's done" --Starlight
        "Of course, human life begins at fertilization that’s not the argument." --Tassman

        Comment


        • #5
          It may forage along the bottom like stingrays.
          Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
          Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
          But will they come when you do call for them? Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1, Act III:

          go with the flow the river knows . . .

          Frank

          I do not know, therefore everything is in pencil.

          Comment

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