New species of shark discovered has ancestors older than dinosaurs

Maybe they just needed a bigger boat.

After decades of looking for it, scientists have discovered a new species of shark, one whose ancestors lived 250 million years ago.

Appropriately dubbed Atlantic sixgill shark, the Hexanchus vitulus belongs to the sixgill family of sharks and lives in the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic sixgill sharks are different from the sixgill sharks that live in the Indian and Pacific Oceans only on a molecular level — it is not something that could be spotted with the naked eye.

WARNING, GRAPHIC CONTENT: MAN PUNCHES SHARK THAT WAS MAULING HIS FOOT, EXPOSING BONES AND TENDONS

“We showed that the sixgills in the Atlantic are actually very different from the ones in the Indian and Pacific Oceans on a molecular level, to the point where it is obvious that they’re a different species even though they look very similar to the naked eye,” said Florida Tech assistant professor Toby Daly-Engel in a statement. Engel is also the lead researcher of the study.


Source : foxnews