Credit: Kenshu Shimada/DePaul University
The new shark species named ‘paradoxodon,’ or paradoxical teeth, comes from the fact that the shark appears to have emerged suddenly in the geologic record with a yet unresolved nearly 45-million-year gap from when Megalolamna possibly split from its closest relative Otodus. The international research team who based their discovery on fossilized teeth up to 4.5 centimeters (1.8 inches) tall found the teeth in California and North Carolina, Peru and Japan.