An intensive search for ancient marine vertebrates in Mammoth Cave National Park's paleontological resource inventory has yielded a wealth of new fossil data. To date, paleontologists have identified marine vertebrate fossils from four major formations within the park, two of which are the first of marine vertebrate fossils to occur in those formations. It's a record. The Mammoth Cave ruins have yielded more than 70 species of ancient fish, approximately 90% of which are cartilaginous fish (sharks and related species), including two new species: I am. Troglocladodus trimbley and Grikmanius Care Forum.
Reconstruction of a new Ctenacan shark discovered in Mammoth Cave National Park and northern Alabama: Grikmanius Care Forum Two people can be seen swimming in the foreground. Troglocladodus trimbley swimming above. Image credit: Benji Paynose.
Mammoth Cave National ParkLocated in central Kentucky, it is home to the longest cave system in the world.
To date, more than 685 km (426 miles) of corridors within 214 km have been mapped.2 It forms a park. In addition, within the boundaries of the park there are more than 500 small caves.
These cave passages date back 340 to 325 million years and were formed by dissolution by underground rivers, streams, and other drainage channels that cut through a series of limestones covered with durable sandstone. I did.
These passages opened up unique views of these limestones. Limestone is a time capsule containing a wealth of information about the ancient marine environment at the time of its deposition.
From these layers, invertebrate fossils such as horned corals, fan-like bryozoans, brachiopods, gastropods, shelled cephalopods, and a variety of echinoderms are found throughout the various strata that form the cave. It has been.
“Every new discovery at Mammoth Cave is made possible because of collaboration,” said Superintendent Barclay Trimble.
“Our parks team is proud to collaborate and collaborate with the National Park Service Paleontology Program and now the University of Alabama Department of Geological Sciences to make this latest announcement possible.”
Restoration of the St. Louis Shallow Marine Environment and its Fauna Genevieve Formation, Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. Image credit: Julius Csotony.
The two new species are stenacanto shark, Troglocladodus trimbley and Grikmanius Care Forumlikely hunting in an ancient coastal habitat that covered Kentucky and Alabama more than 325 million years ago.
This region was once an ancient sea route connecting what is now eastern North America, Europe, and North Africa, but it later disappeared with the formation of the supercontinent Pangea.
Troglocladodus trimbley It was identified from adult and juvenile teeth found in St. Louis and St. Louis. Genevieve Formation and Bangor Formation of Mammoth Cave.
The ancient shark is estimated to have reached about 3 to 3.7 meters (10 to 12 feet) in length, about the same size as the oceanic white shark.
Grikmanius Care Forum It was mainly identified from teeth in St. Louis, St. Louis.Genebabe and Haney Formations in Mammoth Cave, Hartselle and Bangor Formations in Alabama, but a partial set of jaws and gills from a young specimen Grikmanius Care Forum It was also discovered in Mammoth Cave.
The body length of this species was 3-3.7 meters. The shape of its jaws suggests that it had a short head with a powerful bite to hunt small sharks, bony fish, and right-cone-shaped creatures like squid.
“This discovery pushes the origin of the Ktenacanto shark back more than 50 million years earlier than expected,” the paleontologists said.
of study It was published in the magazine park management forum.
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JM Hodnet other. 2024. Sharks in the Dark: Paleontological inventory reveals multiple contiguous populations of Mississippian cartilaginous fishes (chondrichthyes) in Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky. park management forum 40(1); doi: 10.5070/P540162921
Source: www.sci.news
