Dinos, Sharks Were Predators and Prey Jennifer Viegas, Discovery
News July 12, 2007 — Sharks and dinosaurs in prehistoric Europe
had a taste for each other, suggests a new review of vertebrate
fossils found in the Galve region of Northeast Spain. Diverse
findings dating from the late Jurassic to the early Cretaceous
reveal that bony fish, salamanders, frogs, 39-foot-long
crocodilians, small prehistoric mammals, freshwater turtles,
several types of pterosaurs, and various other dinosaurs all
once thrived at the Spanish site from around 163 to 145 million
years ago. Teeth from hybodont sharks — extinct, primitive
shark-like fish — were found in non-marine rocks. This reveals
the hybodonts lived in rivers and lakes right in dinosaur
territory. At least one group of dinosaurs, the spinosaurines,
was equipped to take on the fish species. The findings were
recently published in the journal Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Co-author Darren Naish, a
paleontologist at the University of Portsmouth, ex