Imagine a 16 metre super-sized shark weighing more than 60 tonnes attacking a dolphin or small whale.
The rise and fall of the ancient megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is among the stories contained in a major new book by leading Australian palaeontologist, Flinders University Professor John Long.
The Secret History of Sharks, to be launched at a special event hosted by the South Australian Museum, covers the complete, untold story of how sharks emerged as Earth’s ultimate survivors.
Professor Long says: “Sharks have been fighting for their lives for 500 million years and today are under dire threat.
“They are the longest-surviving jawed vertebrate on Earth, outlasting all five major global mass extinction events that decimated life on the planet.
“But how did they thrive for so long? By developing superpower-like abilities that allowed them to ascend to the top of the oceanic food chain.”
As well as the megalodon, the book describes a gigantic shark with a deadly saw blade of jagged teeth and bizarre sharks fossilised while in their mating ritual.
Flinders University Strategic Professor of Palaeontology Long has been studying fossil fishes and sharks all his life, and draws upon his own experiences and adventures in remote localities around the world when he was involved in some of the key discoveries contained in the book.
Over the past 30 years, Professor Long’s own research efforts led to the discovery of the first fossil found in the Kimberley region Gogo fossil field in Western Australia. This demonstrated how early sharks had remnant bone cells in their cartilage. He also named a fossil shark found in Victoria (Maiseyodus).
Among a range of global experts in shark evolution and biology are Flinders University Southern Shark Ecology researchers Professor Charlie Huveneers and Dr Lauren Meyer who study the tourism attraction of White Shark (Carcharodon carcharias) cage diving in South Australia and elsewhere.
Other novel research outlined in the book includes ways sharks contribute to medical advances and how Flinders University Professor Youhong Tang and other experts’ discovered the potential for marine vessels to copy the streamlined pattern of shark skin.
“These amazing scientific discoveries have ramifications far beyond the ocean and can teach us about our own survival.”
Hear Strategic Professor Long discuss his latest book – The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean’s Most Fearsome Predators – at the SA Museum.
Tuesday 8 October 6pm-8pm
South Australian Museum
Professor John Long is the strategic professor of palaeontology at Flinders University, one of Australia’s largest palaeontological research groups. Professor Long has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers, 25 books and more than 150 popular science articles. Listen to Professor Long on RN Conversations here