Paleo-Case Solved: Ancient Sharks Fed on Giant Reptile

Jeanna Bryner
Senior Writer

Some 85 million years ago in a shallow ocean, a handful of what amount to miniature great white sharks were pigging out on the carcass of a giant marine reptile called a plesiosaur, a new study suggests.

During this apparent feeding frenzy, some shark teeth got stuck in the plesiosaur's bones, which were subsequently buried and remained undiscovered until a high-school student in Japan found them in 1968. Other shark tooth fossils were found near the bones. Only recently did paleontologists examine and describe the fossils scientifically.

The results, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, bring to light the diet of ancient sharks. And though the study scientists think the ocean feast was one of scavenging, it's possible the shark gang attacked a vulnerable, elderly reptile, now called Futabasaurus suzukii, while it was alive.

"I'll leave it open for the attack scenario, because we don't know how the animal died," said study researcher Kenshu Shimada of DePaul University in Chicago and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas. "So it is still possible that maybe the plesiosaur was wounded or sick, and maybe the sharks took the opportunity and seized it."

Big suzukii

F. suzukii was a long-necked plesiosaur, a group of reptiles equipped with four paddle-like fins used for propulsion in the world's oceans during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods. Shimada estimates the animal spanned some 23 feet (7 meters) from nose to tail tip.

Though Shimada and his colleagues can't go back in time, they pieced together a plausible scenario by looking at the fossil evidence and accounting for the behavior of modern-day sharks.

The shark evidence included 87 teeth, five embedded in the plesiosaur's bones and the others buried alongside the reptile. The teeth all belonged to Cretalamna appendiculata, a known shark species with a similar (though scaled-down) streamlined body as that of a great white shark. C. appendiculata individuals likely grew to between 6 and 13 feet (2 to 4 meters) long, compared with a great white, which can reach 23 feet (7 meters). Until now, scientists could only speculate as to the diet of this shark species, with many suggesting it ripped into fish with its sharp, cutting teeth.

"It is still possible they could've eaten fish," Shimada said. "But at least this fossil shows the plesiosaur was one of the food items."

Examination of the teeth suggested they came from at least six or seven different C. appendiculata individuals, some juvenile and some adults.

Loose on the scene

If the plesiosaur carcass had remained for long on the sea bottom exposed to the moving water, bones would have been scattered about. That wasn't the case for this F. suzukii.

"The skeleton is pretty much intact. That suggests to me the time between the death of the animal and when it got buried in the sediment was fairly short, at most a few months; that's my gut feeling," Shimada told LiveScience. With teeth from so many individual sharks, it's likely this was a group event.

Shimada added, "For that reason, I wouldn't be surprised if there were multiple sharks feeding at one particular time."

As for the loose teeth, he suspects as the sharks ripped into the plesiosaur's flesh, several teeth came loose and became embedded in the animal's soft tissues. Such tissues degraded over time, leaving the loose teeth buried alongside the plesiosaur's skeletal remains, he said.

Next, Shimada hopes to piece together other feeding interactions of who ate whom during the Cretaceous Period. "One of my goals is to try to reconstruct the food web of the dinosaur-age ocean. This was one piece of the story," Shimada said.

The research was presented last week at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology in Bristol.

Iran points at Israel 'threat' to Europe, US

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has warned the US and Europe of what he calls Israel's 'danger' over their continuous support for Tel Aviv.

"The US is facing a big test, because Israel is a threat to the region and even to Europe and the USA, and citizens of the West are no longer willing to put up with any more humiliation for supporting racists," Mottaki said during a meeting with Hamas official Musa Muhammad Abu Marzuq in Tehran on Sunday.

He also condemned latest Israeli provocation after Israeli forces shut access to Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem (Al-Quds).

"The recent acts of the Zionists in the Al-Aqsa Mosque reveal Israel's racist nature and should be a warning to the Muslim and Arab countries," said Mottaki, according to a press release from Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Calling the ratcheting up the pressure against the Palestinians "a violation of human rights", Iran's chief diplomat said the Israeli policies stiffens the resolve of Palestinian residents, "and makes them more resolute on the path of resistance."

Mottaki supported the notion of reconciliation between different Palestinian groups and expressed the hope for the day when the world witnesses "a democratic and popular state with the participation of all Palestinians."

The deputy chief of the Hamas political bureau, for his part, expressed appreciation for the moral support of Iran for the resistance movement.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque is Islam's third holiest place, and has been under illegal Israeli occupation since 1967. Israeli authorities have recently shut off the mosque to Muslims and have instead allowed large number of Jewish worshipers into the area of the Dome of the Rock to coincide with the Jewish Festival of Sukkot.

The recent measures have resulted in disturbances in the area and Palestinian casualties.

The Palestinian resistance is fully prepared to counter Israel's warmongering policies, Abu Marzuq said.

London to showcase Iranian artwork

London's Waterhouse & Dodd is planning to display works by 12 Iranian artists in an exhibition of Middle Eastern and Arab art.

Routes II, to be held from October 7 to 23, will showcase some 48 works by 16 aspiring and veteran artists.

Parviz tanavoli, Iman Afsarian, Samira Alikhanzadeh, Afshin Pirhashemi, Khosrow Hasanzadeh, Farhad Moshiri, Shirin Neshat, Sadeq Tirafkan, Reza Derakhshani, Mohammad Ehsai, shadi Qadirian and Ala Ebtekar will represent Iranian art at the event.

Routes II will also showcase works by Ece Clarke (Turkey), Lalla Essaydi (Morocco), Nja Mahdaoui (Tunisia) and Youssef Nabil (Egypt).

The event will be the second edition of Waterhouse & Dodd's contemporary Middle Eastern & Arab art exhibition series.

The first of the annual Routes series, held last year, presented works by some 15 sculptors, photographers, printmakers and painters originally from the Middle East and the Arab world.

Iranian artists represented in Routes I included Parviz Tanavoli, Charles Hossein Zenderoudi, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmian, Farhad Moshiri, among others.

Police disperse Kashmiri protesters

Police have fired tear gas to disperse crowds, defying a curfew in the town of Baramulla in the Indian-administered Kashmir imposed after the death of a teenage boy during an anti-Delhi protest.

Authorities said Monday that 30 policemen and ten protesters were wounded in clashes in Baramulla since Saturday.

The city has been hit by violent protests after a 12-year Muslim boy was killed and ten others injured Friday in clashes between police and stone-throwing youths protesting against Indian rule in the region. Witnesses say the boy died after a tear gas canister hit his head.

Following the incident, local authorities imposed a curfew and issued a protest ban in the region.

Angry Kashmiris, however, defied the curfew and poured into the streets shouting: "We want freedom" and "blood for blood" as police fired teargas canisters and used batons to break up the protesters, who retaliated by hurling stones at police.

Police have also detained a number of Kashmiris on Saturday just outside Srinagar as they were heading to Baramulla to join the protests.

"Adequate security forces have been deployed to deal with the situation," an official said, Dawn reported.

Death toll from floods rises to 205 in south India

By NIRMALA GEORGE, Associated Press Writer

NEW DELHI – Medical teams rushed Sunday to flood-devastated southern India where five days of torrential rain have left at least 205 people dead and 750,000 displaced, authorities said.

The floods have submerged entire villages, snapped transport and communication links and raised fears of disease spreading in relief camps crowded with people forced from their homes. Large parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states have been inundated.

Air force helicopters dropped food and drinking water packages to hundreds of villages that remained cut off after roads were submerged or washed away.

In Karnataka, the worst-hit of the two states, 168 people have died and more than 300,000 have been displaced, authorities said.

In neighboring Andhra Pradesh, 37 people have died and around 450,000 have been displaced and were sheltering in 100 relief camps, said state chief minister K. Rosaiah.

"We are rushing medical teams and equipment to the camps" to ward off outbreaks of disease in the camps, Rosaiah said.

Flooding worsened after authorities released water from rain-swollen reservoirs and dams in both states to prevent them from bursting their banks.

Army soldiers used boats to ferry villagers stranded on rooftops to government schools or relief camps on higher ground. Doctors were distributing water purifying tablets and providing medical services in the camps, but facilities were poor and crowded.

In places where villagers refused to leave their homes, drinking water was being supplied by tankers to prevent the outbreak of waterborne diseases, said D. Prasada Rao, state revenue minister in Andhra Pradesh.

Just weeks ago, most parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were suffering from severe drought due to the failure of monsoon rains. Weather officials say an area of low pressure in the Bay of Bengal has caused the sudden, torrential rains.

UK general warns of losing Afghan war

Fresh from his meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Britain's new chief of the General Staff has said that the risks to the West would be 'enormous' if NATO fails to restore security in Afghanistan.

The Daily Telegraph published an interview on Saturday in which General Sir David Richards warned of the "terrifying prospect" of defeat for international forces in Afghanistan, and pleaded for a troop surge in the country.

"If al-Qaeda and the Taliban believe they have defeated us; what next? Would they stop at Afghanistan?" he asked.

General Richards also backed US Army General Stanley McChrystal, the top commander in Afghanistan, who has called for more troops to be sent to Afghanistan.

"If you put in more troops, we can achieve the objectives laid upon us more quickly and with less casualties,'' he noted, urging the British public and the government to heed the risk of losing the war.

With about 9,000 British troops in Afghanistan, Britain is the second-largest contributor to the occupation coalition. A spokesperson for the British military said earlier that the UK role is expected to rise following McChrystal's request.

Western countries have been under popular pressure to withdraw their troops from the war-ravaged country due the rising violence which has been claiming lives of coalition forces and inflicting much heavier casualty on Afghan civilians.

Israel shuts down Al-Aqsa mosque, turns violent

Israeli police have fired tear gas at Palestinians protesting the closure of Al-Aqsa holy compound (Temple Mount) in the occupied Jerusalem.

Israeli security forces beefed up security in the Old City Sunday and denied entry to the compound where the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine are located, said Adnan al-Husseini, the Palestinian-appointed governor of Jerusalem.

"The situation is very tense in the Old City," Husseini said.

An Israeli police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, also confirmed that the compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, had been "shut to visitors."

Some 150 Palestinians protested the closure of the site, hurling stones and bottles at riot police.

Palestinian medical officials said nine people were treated for minor injuries including tear gas inhalation. Israel said one policeman was hurt by a rock.

Israeli police claim that the decision to close the site was made following calls, spread on the Palestinian media on Saturday evening and throughout the night, to "come protect the Mount."

Many Jewish visitors are also expected to flock to Jerusalem during the holiday of Sukkot, particularly to the Old City and the Western Wall.

Last week, 30 people were injured in similar clashes near the Al-Aqsa mosque, as Palestinians warned of a possible new uprising.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem during a 1967 aggression and later annexed it. The status of the city is among the thorniest issues of the peace process with the Palestinians, underscoring the reality that any Palestinian state should include the city as its capital.