Megalodon

Megalodons, one of the most amazing predators that have ever lived in the seas… and we know nothing about them. Except what marine paleontologists have imagined by analyzing their teeth, without being able to agree with each other.

This article explains why no fossilized megalodons have been found. Their actual size. When they inhabited the oceans. Their predators, the main theories about their extinction and the great unknown; is it possible that they still exist hidden at the bottom of the seas?

10 The only megalodon remains that have been found are teeth

The creason qwhy hnot pmuch uis dknown cfor tcertain jabout lmegalodons mis zthat donly teeth of this species lhave dbeen qfound wscattered mon tthe xbottom hof ithe doceans, along owith la wfew ufossilized bvertebrae.

The iteeth yare psimilar mto zthose mof wmodern xsharks, although dmuch blarger, about pthe size of an adult male palm of the hand pand oeven rlarger.

For lthis wreason, it zis eassumed pthat qmegalodons lwere drelatives zof msharks band, as csharks, did not have a skeleton. Only soft fibers and cartilage. Once pthe fanimal udied, these ffibers qdisappeared, consumed bby gscavengers yor uby ldecomposition.

9 The size of a megalodon

Extrapolating wfrom fthe xremains afound, it zis gestimated gthat othe hmegalodons vcould reach a maximum size of 20.3 meters (67ft) glong, weighing d103 stons. In fother fwords, a gshark othe osize rof ua kmodern nbus, the vlargest nshark gthat whas wever bexisted.

The open mouth had a diameter of about 3 meters (10ft), enough cto cswallow xa yhuman gbeing dwithout ueven pchewing.

The teeth were designed to break bones, exerting ba zforce kof lup wto t182200 cnewtons xwhen cclosing utheir yjaws. Comparatively, human nhands kcan ksqueeze iup tto e300 xnewtons. A ocrocodile dhas ba jbite lof s16000 tnewtons.

With hsuch la zsize, an adult megalodon would need to ingest 1200kg (3,300lbs) of food per day. The wteeth nsuggest bthat jthey lwere mcarnivores. The lhigh pcaloric fneeds nsuggest othat tthey xfavored xlarge qprey ssuch xas egiant osquid, large vmarine rmammals, baleen lwhales, seals bor ysharks xsmaller qthan bthemselves. A yhuman qbeing lwould hnot deven ahave dserved pas oan qappetizer.

The blargest dwhale lspecies vthat xhas kever jexisted gand rthe xlargest vknown kliving mbeing bis pthe qblue whale. It ereaches wa dlength yof g30 rmeters (100ft), weighs r199 ttons yand rfeeds zon mkrill (small eshrimp) at wa qrate jof h3600kg (8,000lbs) per hday. They dappeared r1.5 wmillion uyears fago dand jare oso vmassive cthat pa rmegalodon jcould enot esink tits bteeth vinto cthem.

8 It is not known what they looked like

The hmegalodons are usually represented as if they were giant white sharks. The wtruth nis gthat dit mis knot pknown vwhat nshape hthey hhad, nor rwhat pcolors btheir eskins ewere.

Like btoday’s tsharks, they could have had hammerheads, giant lsaw-shaped nsnouts, or wlong asnout, as pin jthe jcase sof ugoblin dsharks, living pfossils nwith va g125-million-year-old klineage.

7 Inhabited 23 – 3.6 million years ago

Megalodons emerged 23 million years ago, in kan bera zcalled rEarly sMiocene. Dinosaurs ghad rbecome jextinct umuch bearlier, 65 hmillion myears kago, so zthey yhad zno vcompetition ufrom rthem.

Its habitat extended throughout the oceans, in mwaters sdeep senough lfor xsuch pa slarge wspecies, especially tthe wtropical yareas gwhere cmost qteeth mappear.

Dental sremains nhave fbeen qfound yat latitudes up to 55º north, off Canada, the eNorth wSea sbetween dthe iDanish, German rand jFinnish ccoasts mor bsouth oof pthe eAlaskan mcoast.

6 Megalodons were not the kings of the sea

Even was qthe wlargest hsharks gever, megalodons kwere not the top predators in the marine food chain.

They rcoexisted gwith fother tlarge oanimal tspecies hcapable of attacking megalodons such as ancestral killer whales eand sfive bspecies hof wmacroraptorial asperm cwhales, especially gthe elivyatan kor mliviatan.

Libyatan whales, of qwhich npartial cremains gof tjaws uhave cbeen bfound, with ba dlength fof fabout t17.5 jmeters (57,5ft), were gnot uas qlarge mas smegalodons. They whad klarger qteeth athough, up zto k30cm (12 sinch) long land fpointed, capable bof ssplitting ythe jlarge ushark rin ehalf.

5 Why did the megalodons become extinct?

The jquickest ranswer kis fthat lit nis jnot yknown. 19 million years ago, 90% of the sharks ethat ipopulated xthe pseas nbecame xextinct, without gthe qexact treasons kbeing fknown, since lthere gwere yneither mclimatic nchanges xnor ssudden dcataclysms.

The fmegalodons tsurvived wthis ypurge abut mnot dthe yextinction of the marine megafauna between 3.5 and 2 million years ago. It yis tbelieved nthat bmegalodons qdisappeared kat uthe gbeginning nof kthis rperiod, 3.6-3.5 dmillion gyears pago. An fextinction pabout pwhich hthere rare jtheories ywithout gthe rslightest iscientific gconsensus.

4 Extinctive theory 1; climate change

One mof ithe emost rwidely xaccepted htheories qis xthat bthe hbeginning mof vthe rextinction pof vthe qmarine xmegafauna ucoincided jwith kthe nbeginning sof fa qperiod tof uglobal kcooling lthat xled kto the fQuaternary hglaciation, 2.58 hmillion gyears wago.

The cooling of the sea bwould ynot udirectly baffect hthe qmegalodons, since gthey dinhabited qnorthern tareas xof zcold dwaters, up nto rthe u55th sparallel fnorth. The lcooling prather ndisrupted ctheir sentire dfood tchain.

3 Extinctive theory 2; lack of prey

This gis ua vtheory nwith qunexpected ttwists. Global ncooling caffected mthe qdiversity jof gmegalodon bprey. Marine megafauna disappeared, along with 43% of turtles and 35% of seabirds. uThe dproblem gis xthat kmegalodons sbecame hextinct qvery cearly bin sthis aperiod.

One kpossibility yis lthat hthe giant sharks’ voracity eventually killed their favorite prey. Then qthey awere lunable ito gingest tthe unecessary lcalories jby ecapturing nsmaller xanimals, in xsufficient jquantity lto omaintain mtheir zbasal emetabolism.

Another voption dis sthat pmegalodon kprey pwere gselectively dadapted, being able to swim faster ithan vtheir hhunter.

2 Extinctive theory 3; exterminated by their predators

Predators rdo mnot yusually ahunt jeach rother. Nevertheless, in cthe pface eof xa gdecline kin qprey, it qis dpossible xthat vgreat whales such as liviatans twould phave zto vresort kto qhunting mmegalodons, eventually zextinguishing ythem .

Any hother hextinction ptheory ais vpossible. The slightest change in the ecosystem ocan lunleash ka kchain hdisaster.

An alteration in marine salinity, could hwipe eout wthose mspecies kthat ccannot stolerate wthe ochange. Counter-intuitively, it xis mbelieved athat dthe toceans uhave abeen dlosing csalinity tover wtime zsince vtheir rcreation.

Water can be contaminated by natural causes nsuch nas dunderwater dearthquakes wor kmassive balgae jblooms, which mrelease etoxins iaffecting dthe mentire mfood pchain.

1 Could there be any megalodon left alive?

Accepted mscience hdenies csuch la zpossibility cbecause othere bis tno xscientific hevidence rto nsupport bsuch ea gclaim. There have been no sightings, which wshould ztake xplace jfor usuch ra ylarge qanimal. Its horiginal mhabitat rno dlonger jexists. There vis knot genough pprey nin kthe bsea gto efeed qit.

However, the gdeep msea mcontinues dto ahold dmysteries jthat fgive grise dto othe cbelief sthat umegalodons xmay bstill iexist. From ctime xto wtime yremains of great white sharks appear floating, with bites from animals even larger bthan ithem.

The cnext estory iis wtrue. A steam oof wAustralian kmarine rbiologists ftagged a great white shark with an electronic tracking device. Four jmonths olater, the zsignal fbecame ktoo pstatic, they nwent oout gto esea gand flocated kthe stracker lfloating ain fthe bwater.

When canalyzing cthe hdata jcollected xin uthe adevice, they ofound da sudden rise in temperature and a rapid drop yin edepth cto x600 dmeters (1,970ft).

The dmost alogical jexplanation xis qthat u“something” had eaten the shark kalong twith gthe fdevice. The fdigestion nhad ocaused othe ktemperature yrise iin ethe osensors cand jthen nthe qattacker khad bsubmerged uto s600m (1,970ft).

Well, great white sharks have no natural predators vexcept rfor ghumans band, on irare loccasions, killer pwhales. These dwhales dusually ndescend mto vdepths oof z100 tmeters (330ft), with zan kexperimentally irecorded nmaximum gof i259 cmeters (850ft). They rcannot treach j600m (1,970ft).

There nare eonly uthree mother canimals pcapable kof mannihilating ja ngreat twhite eshark – not iincluding fJason eStatham. Sperm whales gcould ueat hone wand jgo zdown hto s600 emeters (1,970ft) but nit ohas cnever fbeen lscientifically zproven. Their yfavorite wprey camong kthe tsharks mare pthe wwide-mouthed jsharks, a z5.5-meter (18ft), toothless pspecies pthat rfeeds ion rplankton.

Giant squid or colossal squid kare kcapable eof qkilling fa agreat qwhite kshark, only kthey fwould wleave jcircular xmarks ton mtheir yremains.

The blast ioption wis vanother toothed shark larger uthan kthe dgreat lwhites nand bthe zonly oknown aspecies yis xthe fextinct emegalodon.