Spectacular fossil discovery: 150 million-year-old shark was one of the largest of its time

Tentative life reconstruction of the hybodontiform shark Asteracanthus; for scale see silhouettes at the right lower corner (© Sebastian Stumpf/Fabrizio De Rossi). In a new study, an international research team led by Sebastian Stumpf from the University of Vienna describes an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of the ancient shark Asteracanthus. This extremely rare fossil find comes from the famous Solnhofen limestones in Bavaria, which was formed in a tropical-subtropical lagoon landscape during the Late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago. The almost complete skeleton shows that Asteracanthus was two-and-a-half meters long in life, which makes this ancient shark one of the largest of its time. The study is published in the journal "Papers in Palaeontology". Cartilaginous fishes, which include sharks and rays, are one of the most successful vertebrate groups still alive today. Due to their life-long tooth replacement, teeth of cartilaginous fishes are among the most common fossil vertebrate finds.