9 million-year-old fossil of great white shark’s ancestor found in Peru

LIMA – Paleontologists in Peru on Jan 20 unveiled a nine million-year-old fossil of a relative of the great white shark that once inhabited the waters of the southern Pacific Ocean, where it liked to devour sardines.

The nearly complete Cosmopolitodus Hastalis fossil was found 235km south of Lima in Peru’s Pisco basin, a hot, desert area famed for frequent discoveries of ancient marine species.

The shark is believed to be an ancestor of the great white shark. It is now extinct, but its teeth once spanned up to 8.9cm in length, while adults could grow to nearly 7m in length – the size of a small boat.

Mr Cesar Augusto Chacaltana, an engineer at a Peruvian geological and mining institute, said at a presentation the shark’s remains showed “exceptional fossilisation”.

Researchers presented the ancient shark’s remains in several glass urns, including one containing a giant, sharp-toothed jaw.

“There are not many complete (shark fossils) in the world,” paleontologist Mario Urbina added at the presentation, adding the remains of numerous sardines were found inside the stomach.

He noted that as anchovies did not yet exist when the shark roamed the open seas and oceans, sardines formed a staple diet for marine predators.

Peruvian paleontologists in November 2024 presented the fossil of a young crocodile that lived more than 10 million years ago off central Peru, where Pisco and the agricultural region of Ica are found.

In April 2024, researchers displayed the fossilised skull of the largest river dolphin known to date, which once inhabited the Amazon some 16 million years ago. REUTERS