The prehistoric ghost lurking in the Mediterranean's violent currents
In short: Deep beneath the surface of the Strait of Messina, a biological relic persists. The Bluntnose Sixgill Shark, a predator with anatomy unchanged for millions of years, occasionally rises from the abyss to patrol the coast, driven by unique hydrodynamic anomalies that bridge the deep sea and the surface.
The Strait of Messina, separating Sicily from mainland Italy, contains a unique hydrodynamic anomaly. Here, the currents of Scyella and Charybdis collide, creating vertical upwellings that pull deep-sea conditions to the surface. These cold, 57°F waters, combined with moonless nights, allow the Bluntnose Sixgill Shark (Hexanchus griseus) to venture into shallower territories. This prehistoric predator, which typically resides below 3,300 feet, can exceed 16 feet in length and possesses a body plan that predates the dinosaurs.
While the Sixgill is a living relic, the history of shark gigantism is a saga of evolutionary experimentation. Since at least the middle of the Cretaceous, various branches of the shark family tree have produced predators exceeding 20 feet. For example, the 75-million-year-old Cretoxyrhina, nicknamed the 'Ginsu shark,' reached 24 feet. The most famous lineage, the megatooth sharks, began around 65 million years ago with the 30-foot-long Otodus obliquus, eventually leading to the massive Otodus megalodon, which likely exceeded 50 feet.
New fossil evidence from the Darwin Formation in northern Australia suggests that modern-type sharks were achieving massive sizes much earlier than previously believed. Researchers identified large, dish-shaped vertebrae from a lamniform shark dating to roughly 115 million years ago. These vertebrae, exceeding 12 cm in diameter, indicate that these early giants were already competing with marine reptiles like pliosaurs and ichthyosaurs. This discovery rewrites the timeline of when sharks began to dominate the ocean's apex predator roles.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: Mediterranean Sharks: Tracking the Prehistoric Giant | Part 1 | SLICE EARTH
- Also: Predatory Sharks Grew to Enormous Sizes in Prehistoric Times. These Five Strategies Helped Them Get So Big
- Also: Fossils reveal a massive shark that ruled Australia in dinosaur times | ScienceDaily
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