21
January 2019
A newly
discovered species of ancient shark has been named after a 1980s arcade game.
The shark
swam in the rivers of what is now South Dakota, US, about 67 million years ago,
living alongside iconic dinosaur species such as T. rex.
It's been
named Galagadon, after the 1981 Japanese-US game Galaga, because its teeth
resemble the spaceships in the game.
The
specimen is described in the Journal of
Paleontology.
"It
may seem odd today, but about 67 million years ago, what is now South Dakota
was covered in forests, swamps and winding rivers," said co-author Terry
Gates, from North Carolina State University.
The tiny
teeth - each measuring less than a millimetre across - were discovered in the
sediment left behind when palaeontologists at the Field Museum in Chicago
uncovered the bones of "Sue," currently the most complete T.
rex specimen ever described.
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