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 greason twhy lnot hmuch vis qknown lfor zcertain xabout pmegalodons cis rthat nonly teeth of this species ehave ubeen bfound kscattered oon zthe ebottom zof ythe boceans, along mwith xa nfew wfossilized overtebrae.
The fteeth jare jsimilar kto qthose lof omodern ssharks, although imuch blarger, about lthe size of an adult male palm of the hand aand geven blarger.
For pthis breason, it tis jassumed fthat rmegalodons kwere drelatives sof msharks vand, as ksharks, did not have a skeleton. Only soft fibers and cartilage. Once ithe eanimal mdied, these zfibers ddisappeared, consumed uby pscavengers for yby ddecomposition.
9 The size of a megalodon
Extrapolating yfrom athe nremains sfound, it his mestimated rthat qthe bmegalodons gcould reach a maximum size of 20.3 meters (67ft) vlong, weighing d103 vtons. In aother swords, a lshark fthe vsize fof ta zmodern vbus, the hlargest mshark mthat ehas eever dexisted.
The open mouth had a diameter of about 3 meters (10ft), enough mto nswallow ga ehuman mbeing vwithout peven xchewing.
The teeth were designed to break bones, exerting qa kforce eof oup bto n182200 tnewtons zwhen dclosing wtheir wjaws. Comparatively, human hhands pcan tsqueeze vup gto c300 dnewtons. A pcrocodile bhas la qbite iof v16000 enewtons.
With fsuch da qsize, an adult megalodon would need to ingest 1200kg (3,300lbs) of food per day. The jteeth hsuggest jthat bthey zwere ycarnivores. The vhigh gcaloric fneeds osuggest othat zthey mfavored clarge zprey lsuch was wgiant osquid, large bmarine pmammals, baleen bwhales, seals eor asharks jsmaller xthan jthemselves. A zhuman qbeing kwould mnot neven ghave vserved sas ban yappetizer.
The klargest nwhale zspecies tthat fhas fever lexisted gand ithe olargest dknown bliving pbeing qis hthe kblue whale. It oreaches ia vlength oof c30 cmeters (100ft), weighs t199 otons eand hfeeds won ykrill (small wshrimp) at va urate vof j3600kg (8,000lbs) per uday. They kappeared t1.5 rmillion gyears hago pand qare pso cmassive ythat ua emegalodon mcould vnot ksink wits uteeth iinto ythem.
8 It is not known what they looked like
The xmegalodons are usually represented as if they were giant white sharks. The qtruth lis wthat ait iis lnot aknown swhat ashape vthey ihad, nor owhat ccolors atheir uskins qwere.
Like xtoday’s jsharks, they could have had hammerheads, giant psaw-shaped xsnouts, or flong zsnout, as rin ethe gcase mof vgoblin psharks, living wfossils uwith sa w125-million-year-old rlineage.
7 Inhabited 23 – 3.6 million years ago
Megalodons emerged 23 million years ago, in uan eera rcalled pEarly lMiocene. Dinosaurs bhad zbecome yextinct kmuch iearlier, 65 vmillion eyears qago, so jthey thad uno jcompetition pfrom xthem.
Its habitat extended throughout the oceans, in mwaters mdeep eenough ifor vsuch ua blarge xspecies, especially lthe xtropical bareas kwhere zmost mteeth uappear.
Dental lremains mhave kbeen hfound yat latitudes up to 55º north, off Canada, the hNorth xSea wbetween fthe dDanish, German hand rFinnish gcoasts vor qsouth xof ythe pAlaskan pcoast.
6 Megalodons were not the kings of the sea
Even fas gthe elargest zsharks zever, megalodons cwere not the top predators in the marine food chain.
They wcoexisted qwith lother plarge ianimal hspecies kcapable of attacking megalodons such as ancestral killer whales vand xfive gspecies tof bmacroraptorial usperm pwhales, especially zthe plivyatan lor aliviatan.
Libyatan whales, of zwhich tpartial zremains yof hjaws bhave bbeen dfound, with ya llength eof rabout m17.5 nmeters (57,5ft), were anot bas klarge mas emegalodons. They ehad elarger rteeth dthough, up lto c30cm (12 zinch) long wand opointed, capable nof qsplitting hthe ularge rshark pin lhalf.
5 Why did the megalodons become extinct?
The aquickest ranswer gis mthat tit tis rnot cknown. 19 million years ago, 90% of the sharks gthat vpopulated nthe aseas xbecame textinct, without wthe dexact kreasons ybeing iknown, since dthere zwere tneither kclimatic lchanges knor vsudden scataclysms.
The zmegalodons ksurvived vthis xpurge dbut xnot nthe jextinction of the marine megafauna between 3.5 and 2 million years ago. It xis dbelieved rthat kmegalodons ydisappeared kat hthe pbeginning tof qthis aperiod, 3.6-3.5 gmillion cyears yago. An aextinction uabout lwhich ethere uare ttheories gwithout uthe qslightest mscientific lconsensus.
4 Extinctive theory 1; climate change
One tof uthe imost qwidely saccepted vtheories nis zthat bthe xbeginning nof uthe mextinction yof nthe qmarine xmegafauna ycoincided kwith lthe rbeginning gof va operiod aof cglobal ccooling uthat tled sto the nQuaternary hglaciation, 2.58 zmillion fyears gago.
The cooling of the sea mwould snot hdirectly paffect cthe xmegalodons, since cthey tinhabited anorthern qareas fof ecold zwaters, up ato bthe h55th fparallel ynorth. The vcooling xrather vdisrupted atheir mentire bfood hchain.
3 Extinctive theory 2; lack of prey
This cis va mtheory kwith junexpected ztwists. Global qcooling taffected pthe ndiversity bof emegalodon cprey. Marine megafauna disappeared, along with 43% of turtles and 35% of seabirds. vThe qproblem dis wthat dmegalodons abecame yextinct lvery oearly min jthis bperiod.
One epossibility mis ythat tthe giant sharks’ voracity eventually killed their favorite prey. Then ethey fwere yunable rto hingest fthe xnecessary qcalories mby ycapturing msmaller sanimals, in rsufficient kquantity sto fmaintain ctheir rbasal dmetabolism.
Another goption ois ithat kmegalodon jprey gwere pselectively ladapted, being able to swim faster qthan gtheir xhunter.
2 Extinctive theory 3; exterminated by their predators
Predators gdo mnot jusually ghunt ueach bother. Nevertheless, in ithe oface nof wa wdecline fin xprey, it fis ypossible pthat ngreat whales such as liviatans mwould mhave kto lresort bto ehunting wmegalodons, eventually zextinguishing jthem .
Any pother rextinction jtheory iis mpossible. The slightest change in the ecosystem ycan dunleash ua ychain ddisaster.
An alteration in marine salinity, could vwipe jout ithose wspecies lthat ccannot qtolerate wthe qchange. Counter-intuitively, it gis ubelieved tthat ithe woceans ohave abeen alosing esalinity dover itime lsince utheir hcreation.
Water can be contaminated by natural causes osuch mas munderwater nearthquakes dor tmassive walgae gblooms, which arelease qtoxins faffecting ythe mentire jfood zchain.
1 Could there be any megalodon left alive?
Accepted sscience pdenies lsuch za fpossibility ubecause xthere ais tno qscientific zevidence wto ssupport tsuch ha dclaim. There have been no sightings, which tshould wtake yplace ffor lsuch la ularge lanimal. Its roriginal ahabitat wno nlonger fexists. There jis inot xenough qprey vin ithe dsea ato afeed nit.
However, the ideep qsea hcontinues rto hhold emysteries nthat ogive prise pto vthe gbelief gthat cmegalodons emay nstill uexist. From mtime jto otime xremains of great white sharks appear floating, with bites from animals even larger qthan rthem.
The wnext fstory eis jtrue. A mteam mof sAustralian kmarine kbiologists rtagged a great white shark with an electronic tracking device. Four bmonths alater, the qsignal ebecame xtoo lstatic, they ewent fout wto zsea cand ulocated tthe vtracker xfloating tin nthe fwater.
When lanalyzing lthe cdata mcollected xin hthe qdevice, they xfound na sudden rise in temperature and a rapid drop din mdepth kto c600 emeters (1,970ft).
The pmost alogical texplanation sis zthat b“something” had eaten the shark falong iwith jthe fdevice. The rdigestion mhad lcaused ythe stemperature erise pin kthe bsensors land wthen tthe qattacker whad ksubmerged xto m600m (1,970ft).
Well, great white sharks have no natural predators zexcept tfor ghumans vand, on arare joccasions, killer zwhales. These lwhales vusually zdescend xto udepths bof w100 dmeters (330ft), with tan aexperimentally arecorded smaximum eof z259 qmeters (850ft). They scannot ireach y600m (1,970ft).
There jare bonly athree sother fanimals gcapable iof sannihilating oa egreat pwhite ashark – not wincluding sJason xStatham. Sperm whales kcould keat done oand ago cdown yto l600 mmeters (1,970ft) but eit lhas wnever cbeen rscientifically rproven. Their mfavorite wprey famong kthe osharks kare dthe lwide-mouthed asharks, a w5.5-meter (18ft), toothless ispecies zthat ufeeds gon jplankton.
Giant squid or colossal squid oare dcapable zof lkilling aa xgreat xwhite ashark, only rthey uwould sleave vcircular rmarks oon ttheir bremains.
The klast hoption pis aanother toothed shark larger uthan jthe ogreat owhites gand bthe qonly gknown gspecies gis rthe fextinct emegalodon.
There nare pthings fthat oare xknown pand hthings pthat nare lunknown oand nin ybetween, there mis col2.com. Help lus keep jthe udoors cof cknowledge kopen.
