Surely sharks have a reputation not completely deserved and we are more than sure that they are not as deadly and dangerous as they paint them, even so, they are still one of the last things you would like to find while you take a bath in the sea, true? There are few things that cause as much terror as meeting a shark when they are swimming, but one of them, if possible, would be a prehistoric shark. If finding face to face with a shark can be terrifying, with a prehistoric species such as Helicoprion can cause us the worst nightmares ever dreamed.
The Helicoprion, whose name means "spiral saw" , was a genus of cartilaginous fish of the order of Eugeneodontiformes , very similar to the sharks that exist today. This animal first emerged in the oceans at the time of the Upper Carboniferous and survived the mass extinction of Permian-Triassic , but ended up becoming extinct in the Upper Triassic about 225 million years ago.
The Helicoprion of impossible smile
If we consider only the size of this monstrous animal, we may get an idea of its terrifying aspect. Estimates place the helicoprion in about 7 meters long and 380 kilograms of weight . If there was a possibility of facing it, we would not find a row of teeth placed side by side in several rows, one of the main characteristics of the helicoprion being the placement of its teeth, placed in a spiral that gave the image of a Circular saw like the one shown below.
With such teeth, we can not get an idea of how this specimen could use its teeth to eat, it must have been tremendously difficult!
As we said before, the helicoprion existed about 225 million years ago so we are not sure how it used such a denture, what we do have is a good hypothesis of how they did it. Surely in the upper jaw they did not have any teeth and that left a lot of room for the "circular saw" of the lower jaw could move up and in . So, it is more than likely, that he would feed by cutting his prey, with a soft body like squids and octopi, while swimming. These movements from front to back, which produced the lower jaw, displaced the two halves of his prey, which had cut in half, into the inside of his throat.
Scientists who have investigated this strange animal, believe that it was closely related to Chimaeriformes, chimaeras or ghost sharks, fish whose composition is made of cartilage except for the teeth. From the reconstruction of the jaw, these scientists have been able to clarify other characteristics of these fish. With this information, the Idaho Natural History Museum is doing a full-scale reconstruction of a 4-meter Helicoprion specimen. We assume that it will be impressive to visit this scale model in the Museum but, although it will look immense, remember that, as we have said before, this animal could reach up to 7 meters in length. Can you imagine being in front of that animal, even if it is a model?
The wheel of death
It is more than likely that you have heard, or even seen in some documentary, the appearance of modern sharks. Sharks today have multiple rows of teeth that give it a pretty sinister appearance. The inner rows are constantly pushing forward with the sole purpose of replacing those teeth that inevitably get lost as the shark hunts prey.
The helicoprion probably was not very different from the current sharks. Surely that was one of the main characteristics of that "circular saw"; the function that the teeth inside the spiral should have would move slowly outwards to replace those of the first lines.
Seeing how monstrous this animal was, we should be happy not to have shared time and planet with it. Although currently, especially in the depths of the oceans, there are horrible creatures that could be taken from a horror movie, the helicoprion would be among the first positions of terrifying animals, do not you think?
Did you know this prehistoric animal ? Have you ever heard of him? Do you think his appearance is terrifying enough?
Although the shark is still one of the most deadly animals that inhabit the planet today, they are not always on the list of some people's worst nightmares. Some people are more afraid of smaller animals than these monstrous ones, like snakes or spiders that cause real phobias. What kind of animals give you more fear? Explain and share with us your fears related to animals. We will be happy to read you!