From a total study of 107,698 shark and ray fossils from the state of Florida, 70 species were recorded, 20 of which were added to the Florida chondrichthyan fossil record for the first time. Chondrichthyans are a large and diverse class of fish with a cartilaginous skeleton, such as sharks and rays.
Victor Perez, assistant curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland, launched a fossil probe to identify and fill gaps in Florida’s chondrichthyan record.
“This study recognizes 40% more taxa than previous reviews of the Florida chondrichthyan fossil record,” Perez wrote in the study.
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Florida holds the unofficial title of “The shark tooth capital of the world” due to the sheer number of fossil shark teeth found. According to Perez, shark skeletons are mostly cartilage that was not mineralized to produce fossils.
A large number of specimens that scientists analyzed for this study have been donated to museums by amateur fossil hunters. The fossils represent sharks and rays that lived in various locations across the state between 45 million and 10,000 years ago.
In Florida, fossils from the Eocene and Oligocene are not well documented. A Calvert Marine Museum representative said the researchers’ findings would be a great resource to help collectors identify if they have something new.
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