(ORDO NEWS) — Scientists from the Australian State Association for Scientific and Applied Research CSIRO discovered a graveyard of sharks during the work of the scientific vessel Investigator in the Indian Ocean.
CSIRO notes that during the expedition of the scientific vessel Investigator, scientists managed to find “a graveyard of sharks, as well as discover a new species of these animals.”
“In this study, we discovered a new species of horned sharks, endemic to Australia, not previously studied or described by scientists.
These animals live at a depth of more than 150 m, and we still do not know anything about their behavior,” said CSIRO expert Will White.
Another find of scientists was a graveyard of sharks on the seabed near the Cocos Islands.
“At a depth of 5.4 thousand meters more than 750 fossilized shark teeth were found that belonged to predators of several species at once.
Among them, the teeth of an ancient megalodon shark were found,” the CSIRO report says.
According to Western Australia Museum researcher Glenn Moore, the most ancient specimens found at the shark cemetery belonged to “the closest relative of the megalodon, a predator at least 12 m long.”
“These findings will allow us to study the diversity of species that live and once lived in our oceans,” he said.
Megalodon is a species of extinct shark that lived in the oceans during the Miocene and Pliocene.
Previously, it was often assumed that the megalodon was similar in appearance and behavior to the modern white shark, but scientists have reason to believe that, due to the restrictions imposed by its large size and unique ecological niche, it was very different in behavior from any modern sharks.
The study of fossil remains shows that the length of this shark reached 15 m, and the maximum weight was from 30 to 47 tons. The bite force of the largest megalodons probably reached 10.8 tons.
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