Paleontologist Dean Lomax of the University of Manchester’s School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and his colleagues from the United Kingdom have discovered a unique fossilized shark egg case dating back 310 million years.
310-million-year-old shark egg case. Image credit: © Dean Lomax.
Sharks have been around for a long time, making them evolutionarily successful. Over millions of years of evolution, these marine monsters have developed a wide range of reproductive adaptations.
The oviparous form of reproduction, or egg-laying, is considered a primitive form and common for benthic, littoral, and bathyal sharks, about 40 percent of extant shark species.
Oviparous sharks produce large yolky eggs, which are often encased in leathery shells with tendrils that anchor them to rocks or weeds.
The well-preserved 310-million-year-old shark egg case was found at a new fossil-bearing Upper Carboniferous site near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK.
“The shark egg case is particularly rare and significant, because it’s soft bodied and an unusual object to find fossilized,” said Dean Lomax, who is the first author of a paper published in the Geological Journal.
Other finds at the site included Carboniferous plants, bivalves, arthropods, tentaculitids and fish scales.
The fossils are now at Doncaster Museum where they have been integrated into the museum’s fossil collection.
“We hope that future organized collecting of the site may reveal further rare discoveries. And who knows, maybe we will even find the actual shark,” Dean Lomax said.
Oviparous sharks produce large yolky eggs, which are often encased in leathery shells with tendrils that anchor them to rocks or weeds.
The well-preserved 310-million-year-old shark egg case was found at a new fossil-bearing Upper Carboniferous site near Doncaster, South Yorkshire, UK.
“The shark egg case is particularly rare and significant, because it’s soft bodied and an unusual object to find fossilized,” said Dean Lomax, who is the first author of a paper published in the Geological Journal.
Other finds at the site included Carboniferous plants, bivalves, arthropods, tentaculitids and fish scales.
The fossils are now at Doncaster Museum where they have been integrated into the museum’s fossil collection.
“We hope that future organized collecting of the site may reveal further rare discoveries. And who knows, maybe we will even find the actual shark,” Dean Lomax said.
Source: sci.news
