Ancient Carpet Shark with ‘Spaceship-Shaped’ Teeth discovered

A newly discovered species of freshwater shark whose tiny teeth resemble the alien ships from the popular 1980s video game Galaga.

Galagadon nordquistae was a small shark (approximately 12 to 18 inches long), related to modern-day carpet sharks such as the “whiskered” wobbegong. Galagadon once swam in the Cretaceous rivers of what is now South Dakota, and its remains were uncovered beside “Sue,” the world’s most famous T. rex fossil.

Above, Galagadon (c) Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum

Terry Gates, lecturer at North Carolina State University and research affiliate with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, said:

“The more we discover about the Cretaceous period just before the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct, the more fantastic that world becomes.

It may seem odd today, but about 67 million years ago, what is now South Dakota was covered in forests, swamps and winding rivers. Galagadon was not swooping in to prey on T. rex, Triceratops, or any other dinosaurs that happened into its streams. This shark had teeth that were good for catching small fish or crushing snails and crawdads.”