Publications by authors named "R Vullo"
Article Synopsis
- * Understanding its biology and evolution is crucial for grasping how such predators influenced today's ocean environments, despite the inability to pinpoint its exact body shape due to incomplete fossils.
- * Recent analysis shows that earlier estimates of the megatooth shark's body length based on existing white shark vertebrae were underestimated, suggesting that it had a more elongated body compared to modern white sharks.
Article Synopsis
- The fossil record rarely shows direct interactions between extinct species, but new findings from the middle Eocene of Messel, Germany, reveal fish-mammal associations with holosteans and bats.
- Three holostean fish specimens were found with bat remains in their jaws, indicating these fish likely attempted to swallow the bats and got entangled.
- This represents the earliest evidence of bats being consumed by these fish and highlights the adaptability of both groups in their ancient ecosystem, offering insights into the complex food web of Eocene Lake Messel.
The fossil fish Agassiz, 1834, characterized by a highly distinctive grinding dentition and an estimated gigantic body size (up to around 10 m), has remained one of the most enigmatic extinct elasmobranchs (i.e. sharks, skates and rays) for nearly two centuries.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSibert and Rubin (Reports, 4 June 2021, p. 1105) claim to have identified a previously unidentified, major extinction event of open-ocean sharks in the early Miocene. We argue that their interpretations are based on an experimental design that does not account for a considerable rise in the sedimentation rate coinciding with the proposed event, nor for intraspecific variation in denticle morphology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe ecomorphological diversity of extinct elasmobranchs is incompletely known. Here, we describe , a bizarre probable planktivorous shark from early Late Cretaceous open marine deposits in Mexico. , tentatively assigned to Lamniformes, is characterized by hypertrophied, slender pectoral fins.
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