The ancestors of sharks

Over 12 million years ago, there were giant fishes that were swimming in the great ocean. They were one of the hugest predators of Earth. And its Latin name was translated as the huge creature with pointed sharp teeth. And this was the ancient ancestor of modern sharks.

Moreover this ancestor managed to survive without changes and today is the closest relative of the great white shark that is the most dangerous shark for people. The remains of these sharks were found in many places of our planet from New Zealand to India and New York. But there was no skeleton found not even the model or the piece of the skin of the ancient shark. Only big triangle teeth were found.

In ancient times when people found the teeth of ancient sharks' people thought these teeth were the teeth of snakes and sometimes even the tongues of birds. Ancient magicians used them as amulets. And sometimes they even powdered them to use them as the unique medicine. The ancient Indians were not rather preoccupied by the origins of these teeth and simply used them for shaving.

But with the lapse of time scientists managed to reconstruct from these teeth not the bird and not the snake but the shark. And it may seem surprising but the length of these ancient sharks was not less than 18-20 meters. And according to some data the length of some of them was even 30 metres.

Today the average length of great white shark's teeth is about 4-5 centimetres and the teeth of their ancestors were twice bigger.