Ancient Shark vs Dolphin Fight Reconstructed

A team of investigators has recently been able to reconstruct an impressive battle scene between a dolphin and a shark, which is believed to have taken place some 4 million years ago. The data needed to put together what happened was collected from bite marks and other tell-tale signs from the fossilized remains of the dolphin. The fossils were discovered in Northern Italy, in the Piedmont region, experts write in a paper accompanying the findings. The work is detailed in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Palaeontology, LiveScience reports.

“The skeleton lay unstudied in a museum in Torino for more than a century, but when I examined it, as part of a larger study of fossil dolphins, I noticed the bite marks on the ribs, vertebrae and jaws. Identifying the victim of the attack was the easy part – it's an extinct species of dolphin known as Astadelphis gastaldii. Working out the identity of the killer called for some serious detective work, as the only evidence to go on was the bite marks,” University of Pisa expert Giovanni Bianucci says, recalling how the reconstruction process took off. He was the lead researcher on this study.

According to the team that analyzed the fossilized remains of the dolphin, it would appear that the 9-foot-long dolphin (2.7-meter) was attacked from its blind side, which would make perfect sense. The predator would have had to be extremely well-versed in the art of stocking its prey, so as to know when to strike. “The smoothness of the bite marks on the ribs clearly shows that the teeth of whatever did the biting were not serrated, and that immediately ruled out some possibilities,” adds UP expert Walter Landini, who is specialized in studying shark fossils.

The identity of the attacker, the extinct shark known as Cosmopolitodus hastalis, was revealed through analysis of the impression their fossil teeth left on clay models. The researchers had to put in some hard work in identifying the culprit, but the mark fossilized teeth from this species left behind were the most similar to the ones found on the dolphin fossil. “From the size of the bite, we reckon that this particular shark was about 4 meters long (13 feet),” Landini says. “Caught in the powerful bite, the dolphin would have struggled, and the shark probably detached a big amount of flesh by shaking its body from side to side,” Bianucci concludes.