Shimada Loves Sharks

While we happened to have a lot of information and input on Tylosaurus and Xiphactinus from Mr. Everhart, and he does have quite a bit of research behind him on Cretoxyrhina as well, the researcher to highlight with papers today is Kenshu Shimada. Mr. Shimada has done quite a lot of work on Cretoxyrhina. In fact, searching Google scholar, of the first 10 results that appear 7 are papers authored by Shimada. I think we could safely call him the "Cretaceous Shark Guy" without offending him. His research has hit a myriad of topics in the world of Cretoxyrhina including skeletal structure, life history, and even the ecology of the animal. I honestly would recommend skimming the discussions and results sections, at least, of some of his papers to get a better understanding of Cretoxyrhina and the world it lived in. There are a surprising number of papers written about this shark. My favorite, however, is the paleoecology paper from 1997. The reason I say this is my favorite is because of the "whole picture" frame that Shimada paints of the world of Cretoxyrhina. I like the image of the shark in its environment.