About 93 million years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming the Earth, a strange shark with wing-shaped fins and a fairly wide mouth moved through the waters of what is now the Gulf of Mexico. This strange shark, nicknamed Aquilolamna milarcae, or eagle shark from the Milarca Museum, where its fossil will be exhibited, has many similarities to the devil’s rays, which also sport “wings” like fins . However, despite their resemblance, neither stingrays nor stingrays still existed at this point in Earth’s history.
Physical characteristics of the unknown species
What is most striking about this winged shark are precisely its wing-shaped fins that would have helped it glide through ancient seas. It measured approximately two meters from end to end, where its length is comparable to the wingspan of bald eagles. Logically, this winged shark did not have claws or feathers, but its enormous size makes it almost impossible not to associate this characteristic with it. It is believed that the animal used its tail to propel and its “wings” to maintain balance. Its wingspan was wider than that of the shark itself. It shares some characteristics with pelagic sharks by sporting a caudal fin (tail) with a well developed upper lobe as seen in whale and tiger sharks. A natural chimera of shark and ray.
We open a new page in the history of the shark family.
This new species was equipped with impressive pectoral fins, which in the studied specimen measured 1.9 meters despite the animal’s body being 1.65 meters long. According to the researchers, who publish their study in the journal Science, it was not a fearsome predator, but a creature that would have used the same feeding system as whales. Its large and wide mouth would have filtered the water and obtained its little food: plankton , according to the international research team led by Romain Vullo, from the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research).
Previously, paleontologists were only aware of one other group of large bony plankton-eating fish, the s pachycormidae , that roamed the oceans during the Cretaceous period. The discovery of Aquilolamna milarcae brings this number to two.
According to experts, this shark with an aerodynamic body “in the shape of a torpedo”, whose fossil remains were unearthed near the city of Vallecillo, in northern Mexico, was an adolescent specimen. Probably a relatively slow swimmer, comparable to other plankton-gobbling elasmobranchs.
The winged shark fossil does not have pelvic fins (located on the underside of sharks, near the tail) nor a dorsal fin, something we remember from the most mythical Hollywood shark movies. But there is no certainty as to whether the shark had these fins when it was alive or if it simply did not become fossilized.
It is clear that it would have been quite a spectacle to be able to contemplate the underwater life of this time: imagine mosasaurs, plesiosaurs and winged sharks gliding before our eyes …
Referencia: R. Vullo at Univ Rennes in Rennes, France el al., “Manta-like planktivorous sharks in Late Cretaceous oceans,” Science (2021). science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi … 1126/science.abc1490
