(Photo by MICHELE SPATARI/AFP via Getty Images)
April 16, 2021
7:45 PM ET
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It may not be “Godzilla Shark,” but the official name scientists have given an extinct shark species from 300 million years ago is still pretty cool.
John-Paul Hodnett and other researchers published their findings in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science this week, and said the shark was indeed a new species, according to the Associated Press. They named the 6.7 foot specimen’s species
Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or Hoffman’s Dragon Shark, the Associated Press reported.
Hoffman is the last name of the family that owns the land on which the fossil was found in the Manzano Mountains.
Paleontologists say they have given a more formal name to the ancient shark fossil dubbed “Godzilla Shark” after it was discovered in New Mexico in 2013
This week, Hodnett and a slew of other researchers published their findings in a bulletin of the New Mexico Museum of Natural History & Science identifying the shark as a separate species.
He named the 6.7-foot (2 meter) monster Dracopristis hoffmanorum, or Hoffman’s Dragon Shark, in honor of the New Mexico family that owns the land in the Manzano Mountains where the fossils were found. Hodnett says the area is rife with fossils and easy to access because of a quarry and other commercial digging operations.
The name also harkens to the dragon-like jawline and 2.5-foot (0.75-meter) fin spines that inspired the discovery’s initial nickname, “Godzilla Shark.”