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There ’s a new face at the Idaho Museum of Natural History — or at least , that case ’s fossilized armoury of stellate slaying - teeth .
According to astatementfrom Idaho State University ( ISU ) , the museum has been bequeath a trade name - new exercise set of fossilized choppers belong to the extinctHelicoprion — an ancient cartilaginous Pisces the Fishes nicknamedthe " bombination saw shark"for reasons that become obvious when you see creative person renderings of its square - out - of - store - class teeth .
An artist’s rendering of the ancient “buzz saw shark."
The fossil , which was discovered at a Monsanto mine , bill over 8 inches ( 20 cm ) in diameter , or slightly smaller than an NBA basketball . The sizable tooth whorl indicates that this ancient Pisces could grow to nightmarishly huge proportions — perhaps up to 25 feet ( 7.7 meters ) long , museum researchers said .
" Our studies onHelicoprionshow it was the largest predatory animal on Earth at the time , nearly 270 million age ago , " Leif Tapanila , an ISU prof and theater director of the Idaho Museum of Natural History , say in astatement . " Idaho is the beneficial place on the satellite to find these awing fogy . "
The buzz saw shark was a freaky ancestor of the advanced - dayratfish(or " touch shark " ) that die extinct about 225 million year ago . Fossils of its unorthodox whorl jaw , which resemble helical shells tipped with fangs , have baffled researchers for more than a century , pull a fast one on some former paleontologist into usher out the jaw asammonite fogy , allot toArs Technica . afterwards , researchers conceive of the helix as part of a spiky , elephant - trunk - like appendage , or a dorky , protruding knife plunk out of the shark ’s massive mouth . [ 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts ]
The newly discovered buzz saw shark fossil shows the ancient predator’s impressive tooth ‘whorl’, which could have carried up to 150 razor-sharp teeth.
A2013 paperin the diary Biology Letters co - authored by Tapanila studied cipher tomography ( CT ) scans of fragmentedHelicoprionskull fossils to finally determine the whorl ’s purpose . The researcher found that the mysterious spiral of teeth did not curl outwards , as late researchers had predict , but rather grew inside the fish ’s lower jaw like a " partly hold back tooth factory,“Scientific American reported at the time .
As new teeth grow in the back of the Pisces ’s mouth , the intact whorl rotated forward to make room for the dentition . finally , older teeth at the front of the mouth curled inwards and tucked into the fish ’s lower jaw in a spooky voluted pattern . Some fossils show up to 150 dentition in a individual whorl , Tapanila and his colleagues write .
So much the proficient , because the bombination saw shark had no tooth in its upper jaw at all . With this single row of radial , razor - crisp teeth , the shark likely dine on mostly soft - embodied animalslike cephalopods , Tapanila and his fellow write in the 2013 newspaper .
The Idaho Museum of Natural History is America ’s foremost repository ofHelicoprionfossils . The new fossil will go on display as part of the museum ’s " Buzzsaw Sharks of Idaho " showing , which has been tour for five years and will take back to Idaho in October , the museum said .
Originally published onLive skill .
