Darwin, Australia; December 12th, 2025
Scientists, examining a handful of massive fossil vertebrae recovered near Darwin in northern Australia, have concluded that a gigantic member of the modern mackerel shark group was already patrolling the seas about 115 million years ago, a finding that commands a rewrite of the timeline for the rise of today’s giant predatory sharks, according to the original research published in COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY and a detailed institutional report from COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY. The study identifies the animal as a gigantic lamniform shark related to the modern great white and mako line, and shows that these sharks achieved mega body size far earlier than previous evidence suggested; the fossils push back the appearance of such giants by roughly 15 million years into the mid Cretaceous seas that once covered northern Australia.
The research team, led by paleontologist Mohamad Bazzi and colleagues working across several institutions, focused on 5 large vertebral centra discovered in Cretaceous marine sediments near Darwin, vertebrae that were first documented in the early nineteen nineties but never subjected to full modern analysis; by carefully measuring the diameter and structure of these centra, and by comparing them with a compiled dataset of living lamniform sharks, the scientists produced new body length and mass estimates that place the ancient predator at roughly 6 to 8 meters long and more than 3 tons in weight, according to the analysis summarized in COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY and confirmed in the university release from COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY. The vertebrae, which exceed 12 centimeters in diameter, are significantly larger than those of adult great white sharks, whose centra average around 8 centimeters, a difference that underscores just how imposing this Australian shark would have been within its ecosystem.
To obtain these estimates, the researchers, as described by COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY, assembled a comprehensive reference set that links vertebral centrum diameter to total body length in modern lamniforms, then applied both within species and between species regression models to the fossil material; this method allowed them to treat the Darwin vertebrae not as isolated curiosities, but as measurable data points anchored in the growth patterns of living sharks. Their results demonstrate that the Australian cardabiodontid, the group to which the fossils belong, had already evolved the hallmark gigantic body size characteristic of later lamniform top predators; in effect, the study shows that mega body size is not a recent innovation in this shark order, but an ancient trait that arose early in its evolutionary history.
The institutional report from COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY notes that these fossils come from rocks laid down in the ancient Tethys Ocean, at a time when long necked plesiosaurs and other large marine reptiles occupied the same waters; in this setting, the newly recognized shark would have shared the top of the food web, rivaling the largest marine reptiles in size and predatory reach. By pushing the appearance of mega sized lamniform sharks back to the upper Aptian stage, around 115 million years ago, the research shows that these fishes had already invaded top predator niches during the age of dinosaurs, long before the later Cretaceous radiation that previous fossil records seemed to indicate. The study therefore changes not only shark history, but the reconstructed structure of mid Cretaceous marine ecosystems, which must now accommodate an earlier presence of massive mackerel sharks hunting alongside marine reptiles.
According to the summary in COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY, the team’s results also carry statistical weight for broader questions of body size evolution; when the Australian cardabiodontid is added to the compiled dataset, mega body size appears repeatedly and independently within lamniform evolution, suggesting that environmental opportunities, such as abundant prey and open ocean habitats, may have favored the rise of very large predators multiple times. The authors point out that this pattern of repeated gigantism, documented now in an early cardabiodontid, in later giant lamniforms, and in the famous megatooth sharks of a different family, underscores how strongly marine ecosystems can select for extremely large active predators when conditions allow.
Both COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY and COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY emphasize that the discovery grew out of renewed attention to museum material already in hand; the vertebrae had rested in collections for decades, preserved and cataloged, yet their full significance remained unrealized until the present team undertook a new round of measurements and comparisons. The researchers argue that this case demonstrates the scientific power of revisiting historical collections with fresh questions and improved methods; within such collections, fossils that once seemed ordinary may, under new analytical approaches, become key evidence that reshapes major evolutionary narratives. In this instance, a small cluster of vertebrae has forced a reconsideration of when the oceans first hosted sharks on the same scale as modern great whites, showing that such giants were already present while dinosaurs still dominated the land.
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Sources
• COMMUNICATIONS BIOLOGY original research article “Early gigantic lamniform marks the onset of mega body size in modern shark evolution” by Mohamad Bazzi and colleagues, reporting fossil vertebrae from northern Australia, body size estimates of approximately 6 to 8 meters and more than 3 tons, and a revised timeline for gigantic lamniform sharks.
• COLUMBUS STATE UNIVERSITY institutional news release detailing the 115 million year old vertebrae, their measurement, the regression based body size estimates, and the conclusion that these fossils push back the emergence of mega sized lamniform sharks by about 15 million years.
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