Australian Scientists Discover Shark Graveyard in Indian Ocean
Great white shark
Australian scientists have recently discovered a real “treasure trove” that may help unlock the secrets of the past.Scientists of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), who work on the research vessel Investigator, have found a mysterious shark graveyard in the depths of the Indian Ocean off the coast of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. Among the fossils of ancient marine animals, researches discovered the teeth of the ancient ancestor of a megalodon shark.”This shark evolved into the megalodon, which was the largest of all sharks but died out about 3.5 million years ago,” Western Australian Museum’s fish curator Glen Moore said in a statement.Aside from that, scientists found more than 750 mineralized teeth at the bottom of the Indian Ocean.According to the researchers, this is the most massive “burial” of sharks humans have ever stumbled across.As the shark fossils are essentially just teeth and scales, a site like this is a “window into history”, a shark expert from CSIRO’s Australian National Fish Collection, Will White, said. Scientists anticipate that the newly-discovered fossils will help researchers better understand the diversity of species that inhabited the region in later times.
