by Two new shark species that lived 325 million years ago have been discovered in Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park and northern Alabama.
The sharks would have lived in an ancient seaway that existed before the supercontinent Pangaea formed, locking them away in the fossil beds we see today.
Both are ctenacanths, ancient cousins of modern sharks with defensive comb-like barbs on their spines.
Because the fossil specimens in Mammoth Cave aren't exposed to the elements, they are often much better preserved, and retain much more detail, than fossils found on the surface.
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest cave system, with over 420 miles (676 kilometers) — about the distance from Boston to Washington, D.C. — of passages cut into the limestone by underground streams and rivers.
Source
The sharks would have lived in an ancient seaway that existed before the supercontinent Pangaea formed, locking them away in the fossil beds we see today.
Both are ctenacanths, ancient cousins of modern sharks with defensive comb-like barbs on their spines.
Because the fossil specimens in Mammoth Cave aren't exposed to the elements, they are often much better preserved, and retain much more detail, than fossils found on the surface.
Mammoth Cave is the world's longest cave system, with over 420 miles (676 kilometers) — about the distance from Boston to Washington, D.C. — of passages cut into the limestone by underground streams and rivers.
Source
