How do we interpret the systematics and anatomy of fossil and living sharks

How do we interpret the systematics and anatomy of fossil and living sharks?

Michael D. Gottfried

Associate Professor, Geological Sciences

Vertebrate Paleontology

My research interests revolve around the anatomy, paleobiology, and interrelationships of primitive fishes and sharks. Most recently I have focused on lamnid sharks–the group that includes the living Great Whites and Makos, along with their sometimes spectacularly large fossil relatives. One intriguing aspect of these sharks is the great degree of variation seen in their teeth, which makes systematic studies on fossil sharks that are often represented only by teeth challenging. A colleague and I have found that baby white sharks begin growing, shedding, and replacing teeth while they are still developing in their mother’s uterus, and that furthermore these teeth and those of later growth stages look nothing like the teeth of "typical" (i.e. adult) white sharks. This raises some very serious implications for studies based on isolated fossil teeth.

Another current project involves describing a recently collected fauna of fossil sharks and fishes recovered from Late Cretaceous sites on Madagascar. This was a critical time interval when Madagascar was splitting away from the African mainland. Interpreting the systematic and biogeographic relationships of these fishes and sharks will help us address the question of how Madagascar's highly endemic fauna evolved.

Selected Publications

Gottfried, M.D. 1993. Functional morphology of the feeding mechanism in a primitive palaeoniscoid-grade actinopterygian fish. In Fossil Fishes as Living Animals, E. Mark-Kurik (ed.), pp. 151-159. Estonian Academy of Sciences.

Gottfried, M.D. 1996. Miocene basking sharks (Lamniformes, Cetorhinidae) from the Chesapeake Group of Maryland and Virginia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15(2):443-447.

Gottfried, M.D., L. Compagno and S.C. Bowman. 1996. Size and skeletal anatomy of the giant "megatooth" shark Carcharodon megalodon. In Great White Sharks: The Biology of Carcharodon Megalodon, A. Klimley and D. Ainley (eds.), pp. 55-67. Academic Press, San Diego.

Gottfried, M.D. and S. Dawson. 1997. Paleopathology in a Miocene kentriodontid dolphin. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology. In press.

Gottfried, M.D. and D.W. Krause. 1997. The first record of gars (Actinopterygii, Lepisosteidae) on Madagascar: Late Cretaceous remains from the Mahajanga Basin. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. In press.