Galagadon

Galagadon (/ɡælʌɡədɒn/) is an extinct genus of small carpet shark that lived during the Late Cretaceous period. It contains one species, G. nordquistae. It was named after the video game Galaga due to a resemblance between its teeth and the spaceships in the game,[1] and Field Museum volunteer Karen Nordquist.[2]

Galagadon
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 67.4 Ma
↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Orectolobiformes
Genus: †Galagadon
Gates, Gorscak and Makovicky, 2019
Species:
†G. nordquistae
Binomial name
†Galagadon nordquistae
Gates, Gorscak and Makovicky, 2019

The extinct shark would have traversed the rivers and wetlands of South Dakota some 67 million years ago. The find, dating to the late Cretaceous period, was presented in the Journal of Paleontology.[3][1]

Discovery

Galagadon nordquistae was described from small teeth found in limestone originating from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in western South Dakota, specifically that left over from the excavation of the remains of Sue the Tyrannosaurus rex.[4][5] According to William Simpson, the head of geological collections and the collections manager for fossil vertebrates at the Chicago Field Museum, the museum in which G. nordquistae's teeth are currently housed, the limestone was only preserved "because there are tiny fossils in the matrix, and I knew that one day I could find a victim some day to go through all of that rock and look for the tiny fossils".[lower-alpha 1][4]

References
  1. Gates, Terry; Gorscak, Eric; Makovicky, Peter (21 January 2019). "New sharks and other chondrichthyans from the latest Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) of North America". Journal of Paleontology. doi:10.1017/jpa.2018.92. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  2. Wenz, John (21 January 2019). "New Shark Species Found in the Mud, Right Next to Where Sue the T. Rex Was Discovered". Popular Mechanics. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  3. Dvorsky, George. "Ancient Shark With Spaceship-Shaped Teeth Named After Vintage Video Game". Gizmodo. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.
  4. Hall, Charlie (21 January 2019). "Newly discovered prehistoric shark named after arcade classic Galaga". Polygon. Archived from the original on 23 January 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  5. Switek, Brian (21 January 2019). "New Prehistoric Shark Species Discovered Alongside Sue the T. Rex". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on 21 June 2019. Retrieved 22 January 2019.

Notes
  1. "Matrix" refers here to limestone.[4]


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