100 million year old swordfish skeleton has oversized teeth

Two families in the suburbs of Queensland, Australia, found an extremely rare skeleton dating back 100 million years of an ancient swordfish.

A three-metre-long swordfish fossil was found in a suburb of Queensland, Australia. Photo: Patrick Smith.

The Johnston and Amos families, from the north-west Queensland town of Richmond, discovered the bones emerging from the rocks at a free fossil-hunting site, the BBC reported. The fossils are believed to belong to the extinct Australopachycormus hurleyi, a three-metre-long swordfish-like predator with oversized teeth.

At first, the Johnstons didn't know much about the fossil. "We thought it was a giant reptile tooth, because it was so big and conical," Mirjam Johnston said. "It wasn't until that evening, when we showed the bone to a fellow fossil enthusiast, that we realized it was the tip of a fish's snout."

Tony and Gail Amos returned to the area a week later and found the rest of the fish, including its skull and front fin. "When I put my shovel in the ground, I didn't expect to find such a complete skeleton. I dug up the dirt and there were bones everywhere," Tony said.

The fossil was given to the local Kronosaurus Korner Museum. "What makes this specimen special is that it is quite complete. We know it was a predator from above. It preyed on a large, fast-swimming fish similar to a marlin," said museum curator Dr Patrick Smith.

According to VNE