A restoration of the giant, durophagous shark Ptychodus, courtesy paleo-artist Matt Celeskey.

The study of prehistoric sharks is no easy task. Specialists in other branches of vertebrate paleontology at least have the reasonable hope of discovering complete skeletons of their subjects; except in instances of exceptional preservation the scientists who study sharks typically only have teeth and a few vertebrae to work with. Still, you can tell a lot about a shark by its teeth, and a new study published in Cretaceous Research suggests that one peculiar form was a shell-crushing giant.

Thanks to Jaws, “Shark Week”, and other sensationalist films the word “shark” most immediately conjures up images of streamlined predators with triangular, razor-sharp teeth. For