Fish with Grinding Teeth Lived Millions of Years Ago in Colombia

Researchers have discovered a species of flat-toothed shark that lived millions of years ago in northeastern Colombia, using analysis of several fossils.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the fossils, belonging to a species called *Strophodus rebecae*, were found in Zapatoca, about 250 kilometers north of Bogotá.

Studies indicate that this species lived 135 million years ago in this submerged part of South America.

This fish was between four and five meters long and had domino-shaped teeth, which it used to crush its food rather than cut and tear it like modern sharks with their sharp teeth.

Edwin Cadena, a researcher involved in the studies, explained that the fossils were found in different locations in the Zapatoca region and belong to more than one fish, confirming that they all belong to the same species.

These fossils are the first of fish from the Strophodus family to be found in the Southern Hemisphere, specifically in the region once known as Gondwana, which encompassed South America, Africa, Australia, India, and Antarctica.

Cadena noted that traces of the same species have been found in North America and Europe, particularly in Germany and Switzerland, but these fossils are the first of this family of sharks discovered in the southern part of the planet.

Sharks are believed to have played a crucial role in the marine ecosystem of that era, as their teeth could crush prey such as fish and invertebrates, while simultaneously serving as prey for the large reptiles that inhabited that environment.