If you think today’s great white sharks are bad news, consider the Megalodon shark (above). It lived from 23 to 3 million years ago, and some were as big as 60 feet long and weighed 100 tons. By comparison, Nukumi, the largest great white ever tagged by OCEARCH, the shark research organization, was 17’ 2” long and weighed 3,541 pounds.
In recent studies, scientists have learned much more about the Megalodon, particularly after finding fossils in nurseries in northeast Spain. Researchers from the University of Bristol and Swansea University just published a new study, based on 25 Megalodon teeth they found in Spain, in Scientific Reports.
Extrapolating from the teeth, the scientists say that a one-month-old Megalodon was about 13 feet long, while juveniles were 36 feet long. They said that one Megalodon was 52.5 feet long; its head was 15.3 feet long; its dorsal fin about 5.3 feet high, and its tail 12.6 feet long. This was the one that weighed 100 tons. Its teeth were larger than a human hand.
Reconstructing the size of the Megalodon’s body parts makes it easier to understand how they became extinct, the scientists say. One theory is that they became extinct because they were outmaneuvered by their smaller and more agile cousin, today’s great white.
Another theory is that they were killed by an exploding star. But the latest idea is that they died off because they could not regulate their body temperature, and did not adapt as ocean water temperatures cooled.
Whatever made the Megalodon disappear, they left behind a large shark legacy. The scientists believe that the Megalodon are related not only to today’s great whites, but also to mako, salmon, and porbeagle sharks as well. And, in case you’re wondering, Megalodon means “big tooth.” Read more:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0746
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200903095637.htm
