Squalicorax and Duck-Billed Dinos
Sharks and dinosaurs were both prevalent during the same periods, but did they ever encounter each other? Recent evidence suggests that they likely did. Here are the most probable shark encounters with dinosaurs.
Squalicorax, a 16.5-foot-long shark, feasted on a duck-billed dinosaur during the Cretaceous. Remains of the two, documented in the journal Palaios, consisted of a chewed-up hadrosaur foot with a shark tooth embedded in it. Paleontologists are not sure if the shark scavenged on an already-dead dinosaur, which might have keeled over on land before winding up in the water, or if the coastal predator shark killed the dinosaur outright.
Spinosaurus Shark Feast?
The mega carnivore dinosaur Spinosaurus, with its crocodile-like snout, is thought to have craved both surf and turf. A tooth from this Cretaceous predator was found embedded in a pterosaur. Some pterosaurs lingered around water sources, similar to today’s shore birds. If Spinosaurus nabbed a pterosaur and was built for fish eating, it probably could have taken on a shark.
Fish-Loving Baryonyx
Baryonyx, like Spinosaurus, had a crocodile-like head. It also had huge claws built for lifting marine life, including reachable sharks, out of the water. Its tummy provides telltale evidence of fish feasting, remembering that sharks are fish too. Emily Rayfield of the University of Bristol, who studied the dinosaur, said, “On excavation, partially digested fish scales and teeth and a dinosaur bone were found in the stomach region of the animal, demonstrating that at least some of the time this dinosaur ate fish.”
Dinos and Sawsharks
Sawsharks are technically rays, but they are very closely related to sharks and look like them. David Ward of The Natural History Museum in London told Discovery News, “Sharks could have predated dinosaur carcasses, and dinosaurs might have eaten sawsharks when they were in shallow fresh water rivers and estuaries.”
Read more at
Discovery News
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