Fossilised tooth from at the very least seven shark species have been recognized at Abu-Tartur in Egypt’s Western Desert.
Fossilised shark tooth found on the Abu-Tartur Plateau in Egypt’s Western Desert are providing a brand new glimpse into the marine ecosystem that coated the area tens of tens of millions of years in the past.
Researchers led by Cairo College paleontologist Tarek Yassin reported 14 beforehand unrecorded shark tooth from phosphate-bearing layers of the Duwi Formation, figuring out 5 species not beforehand recognized from the location. Mixed with two species documented earlier, the findings point out that at the very least seven shark species inhabited the realm through the Cretaceous interval.
On the time, northern Egypt lay beneath a heat, shallow sea. The Duwi Formation dates to the Late Cretaceous and accommodates in depth phosphate deposits related to nutrient-rich marine situations, with different analysis on the formation additionally documenting ample shark tooth and fragmented fish stays.
The recovered tooth various significantly in form, together with lengthy, slender types and broader serrated tooth suited to slicing, in addition to sharply curved examples and tooth with smaller aspect projections generally known as cusplets. The variations supply clues to the vary of feeding methods and ecological niches occupied by sharks within the historical sea.
As a result of shark skeletons are composed principally of cartilage, they not often fossilise intact. Tooth are due to this fact among the many most necessary stays out there to paleontologists reconstructing historical shark variety and feeding ecology. Fossil shark tooth are additionally extensively used to trace modifications in shark communities throughout the Cretaceous and later durations.
