Gigantic 115-million-year-old mega shark fossil found in northern Australia

Scientists have unearthed 115-million-year-old vertebrae from an ancient predator that measured up to 8 metres long in Australia.

A stunning fossil discovery on the Australian coast has unveiled that gigantic, bus-sized sharks were dominating the oceans millions of years earlier than previously thought.

The discovered fossil consists of five immense vertebrae, found in the rocky shoreline near Darwin. The area was once the muddy floor of the ancient Tethys Ocean.

These vertebrae, measuring up to 12.6 cm across are significantly bigger than those of a modern great white shark, representing a colossal creature weighing over three tonnes.

The research published in the journal Communications Biology recognises the shark as belonging to the extinct Cardabiodontidae family.

These were massive lamniform sharks, the same order that involves today’s great white and mako sharks.

But, this specific specimen is the oldest of its kind ever found, pushing back the known origin of such shark giants by a staggering 15 million years.

Lead author Dr. Mikael Siversson of the Western Australian Museum stated, “This discovery rewrites the timeline of shark evolution.”

“We now know that these absolutely humongous sharks, reaching sizes comparable to a city bus, were already patrolling the oceans alongside plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs during the Age of Dinosaurs.”

The research authenticates that modern shark lineages experimented with enormous body sizes far earlier in their evolutionary history.

This early gigantism enabled them to claim a top stop in the prehistoric food chain, hunting major marine prey in ecosystems once thought to be dominated by giant reptiles.

The analysis by an international team confirms that the Cardabiodontids were a dominant oceanic force for millions of years before the rise of the more famous megalodon.