• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

Megalodon

Blurry Photo's podcast and monsters among us did a recent "round table" review on the film "Meg" (2018). Don't bother listening it was awful I've no idea why they picked this film when they were so obviously not interested in it. Why would you be it was rubbish?

If I want to listen to 3 bored people going through the motions then I have certain teams at work I deal with that do that.
 
Thank goodness! I spend quite a bit of time swimming in the sea, and have constantly had a nagging worry about the thought of being bitten in half by a 60 — 80 foot shark. Now I know they were only about 50 feet long, I will be far more relaxed about the whole thing.

The smaller ones are just as capable of biting you in half as a 60-80 footer...
 
Maternal Meg.

Megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived, was a fierce predator in prehistoric seas, with a bite force five times as strong as today’s great white.

But it was also a wise mother, new research reveals. An analysis of megalodon teeth found from sites across multiple continents suggests these giants commonly used nurseries to improve their youngsters’ chances of survival, just as some modern sharks do.

It is an “exciting” possibility, says Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University who wasn’t involved with the work. Still, he says, more research is needed to confirm the findings.

Many modern marine animals, from shrimp to sharks, rely on nurseries. These shallower areas, such as mangroves and seagrass, are rich with nutrients, which help young grow big and strong enough to survive out on their own. ...

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/11/megalodon-was-megalo-mom
 
A great scientific discussion about what we know about megalodon.

 
Megalodon teeth found in Atacama Desert

A massive haul of huge razor-sharp teeth which belonged to the biggest fish that ever lived were stumbled on in a desert by chance.

The bumper find of megalodon teeth in the Atacama desert in Chile is now "one of the largest scientific collections of megalodon teeth in the world."

"[It's] by far the largest shark of all time, a super predator whose wingspan is estimated to be between 16 and 20 metres (52 and 66 feet) long," said Atacama Palaeontology's Executive Director, Pablo Quilodran.
1637845955123.png
1637845968475.png
 
"[It's] by far the largest shark of all time, a super predator whose wingspan is estimated to be between 16 and 20 metres (52 and 66 feet) long,"
Bloody hell! Those movies on the SYFY channel were right after all! o_O
 
Megalodon and chips though you would need a lot of chips.
 
I have never heard "wingspan" referred to for shark size.

I don't know how formal or how widespread the practice may be, but I've found multiple documented allusions to 'wingspan' being used to mean the distance between the tips of a fish's pectoral (front side-mounted) fins.

It's a new one on me, too ...
 
Speaking of conjuring up images ... A newly published research report concludes we really have no idea what megalodon looked like.
It's Official: New Study Shows We Have No Idea What Megalodon Really Looked Like

Earth's oceans were once home to an absolutely fearsome predator.

We know it only from teeth and vertebrae in the fossil record, but these tell us that megalodon (Otodus megalodon) was absolutely colossal. Many of those teeth are as big as your hand. Megalodon, we can only conclude, was the largest shark ever to swim the seas, with a maw that could easily swallow a human whole.

But sharks are mostly soft tissue, their bodies supported by cartilage rather than bone. Most of their remains haven't survived the 3.6 million years since their extinction; this means we've had to guess what it looked like based largely on those teeth and vertebrae alone.

Was it a chunky muscle-unit like the great white? Was it more sleek and slender like a blue shark, or pointy like a goblin shark? Did it have two heads? According to the latest study, the best answer we now have is a... giant shrug and the scientific version of a "dunno".

It appears it might be time to rethink how we reconstruct the ancient beast.

"The reality," writes a team of researchers led by biologist Phillip Sternes of the University of California Riverside, "is that there are presently no scientific means to support or refute the accuracy of any of the previously published body forms of O. megalodon." ...
FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-o...absolutely-no-idea-what-megalodon-looked-like
 
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract from the published research report. The full report is accessible at the link below.

Phillip C. Sternes, Jake J. Wood & Kenshu Shimada (2022)
Body forms of extant lamniform sharks (Elasmobranchii: Lamniformes), and comments on the morphology of the extinct megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, and the evolution of lamniform thermophysiology
Historical Biology
DOI: 10.1080/08912963.2021.2025228

ABSTRACT
The megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, is an iconic Neogene lamniform shark known only from its teeth and vertebrae. Its thermophysiology is previously inferred to have been regionally endothermic, like the extant lamnids that are active predatory lamniforms. By considering the entire Lamnidae as the ecological and physiological analogue to O. megalodon, a recent study proposed inferred body dimensions of O. megalodon based on morphometric analyses on body forms of extant lamnids. Here, we reassessed the recent study by testing whether a two-dimensional approach used in the study can actually tease out the difference between ectothermic and endothermic fishes in the first place. Morphometric comparisons of the whole body and different body parts (e.g. head, different fins, and precaudal body with and without fins) among the 15 extant species of Lamniformes were conducted using principal component analyses and simple clustering methods. Our study strongly indicates that, two-dimensionally, there is no relationship between thermophysiology and body form in lamniforms. The reality is that there are presently no scientific means to support or refute the accuracy of any of the previously published body forms of O. megalodon. We also clarify that regional endothermy likely evolved in multiple clades independently through lamniform phylogeny.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2021.2025228
 
Outcompeted by Great whites.

Competition for food with the great white shark may have contributed to the extinction of the megalodon, one of the largest carnivores to have ever lived, new research suggests.

Megatooth sharks like Otodus megalodon, more commonly known as megalodon, lived between 23 and 3.6 million years ago in oceans around the world and possibly grew to as big as 20 metres in length. For comparison, the largest great white sharks today can reach a total length of only six metres.

In the new study researchers looked for signs of zinc in modern and fossil shark teeth from around the globe, including teeth of megalodon and modern and fossil great white sharks. Zinc is incorporated into the enamel of teeth when they are formed and can be used as a proxy for understanding an animal’s diet and investigating an animal’s trophic level – how far up the food chain it feeds.

When comparing the findings between megalodon and the great white shark, researchers found that when the animals coexisted, during the Early Pliocene, their trophic levels overlapped and they may have competed for the same food resources.

The researchers highlight there are multiple potential causes of megalodon’s extinction – which has been the cause of much debate, including climate and environmental changes, but suggest competition with the great white shark may have been a factor.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/world/arid-40885721.html
 
Newly reported research from Peru indicates megalodon loved to chow down on sperm whales' giant facial / nasal structure - a concentrated mass of fat.

What was megalodon's favorite snack? Sperm whale faces

If the giant, extinct shark megalodon had to pick a favorite meal, the winner would likely be sperm whales ... by a nose.

In fact, sperm whale noses were popular snacks not only for megalodon but also for other ancient sharks that preyed on sperm whales, according to a new analysis of fossil whale skulls.

When scientists in Peru peered at a series of skulls belonging to extinct whales that lived during the latter part of the Miocene epoch (23 million to 5.3 million years ago), they found numerous bite marks left behind by multiple shark species, including the massive megalodon (Otodus megalodon) and sharks that are still around today, such as great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and mako sharks (Isurus). ...

In some cases, a number of shark species had fed on the skull of a single whale in "a series of consecutive scavenging events" that left the skull scarred by more than a dozen bites. What's more, the location of the bite marks told the scientists that the sharks were targeting the whales' foreheads and noses, likely so the predatory fish could feast on the fatty organs' generous stores of nutritious blubber and oil. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/ancient-sharks-bit-whale-noses

PUBLISHED RESEARCH REPORT: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2022.0774
 
Speculative 3D modeling and simulation suggests megalodon could cruise faster and readily eat larger prey than any shark alive today.
Megalodon was fastest swimming shark ever and could devour an orca in 5 bites, 3D model reveals

The megalodon shark was so big and powerful it could devour an orca in a few bites, and was the fastest cruising shark to ever swim the oceans, a new study shows. The finds were revealed thanks to a new 3D model of the long-extinct shark, based on data collected from fossilized teeth and vertebrae, which is giving scientists the best look yet at the size, speed and diet of the infamous "superpredator." ...

In the new study, researchers combined measurements from an exceptionally well-preserved vertebral column uncovered in Belgium and a set of teeth found in the U.S. to create a rough blueprint of the megalodon's skeleton. The team then used body scans of a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) to fill in the gaps and estimate the amount of soft tissue that would have surrounded megalodon's bones. The scientists then combined these data to create a digitally reconstructed 3D megalodon that researchers could use to peer into the secret lives of the giant beast.

Based on the model, "we estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators," the researchers wrote in the new study ...
FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/3d-megalodon-model
 
Last edited:
Here are the bibliographic details and abstract from the published 3D modeling study. The full report is accessible at the link below.


Jack A. Cooper, John R. Hutchinson, David C. Bernvi, Geremy Cliff, Rory P. Wilson, Matt L. Dicken, Jan Menzel, Stephen Wroe, Jeanette Pirlo, Catalina Pimiento
The extinct shark Otodus megalodon was a transoceanic superpredator: Inferences from 3D modeling
SCIENCE ADVANCES
17 Aug 2022 Vol 8, Issue 33
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abm9424

Abstract
Although shark teeth are abundant in the fossil record, their bodies are rarely preserved. Thus, our understanding of the anatomy of the extinct Otodus megalodon remains rudimentary. We used an exceptionally well-preserved fossil to create the first three-dimensional model of the body of this giant shark and used it to infer its movement and feeding ecology. We estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators. A dietary preference for large prey potentially enabled O. megalodon to minimize competition and provided a constant source of energy to fuel prolonged migrations without further feeding. Together, our results suggest that O. megalodon played an important ecological role as a transoceanic superpredator. Hence, its extinction likely had large impacts on global nutrient transfer and trophic food webs.

SOURCE: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9424
 

Nine-year-old girl finds gigantic Megalodon tooth on the beach

Molly Sampson discovered a gigantic magalodon tooth in the waters of Chesapeake Bay in Maryland in the United States.

No stranger to ancient artifacts, Molly apparently told her mother that she was ‘going to look for Meg’ that morning.

Molly has found over 400 teeth during her expeditions to the beach, but this 13-centimetre long specimen is the largest.
1673540298198.png
 
She must be a dedicated and patient searcher...or are these thing easy to find?

I remember it took me a long time to find beach agates...and a lot of work building patience stamina.
 
She must be a dedicated and patient searcher...or are these thing easy to find?

I remember it took me a long time to find beach agates...and a lot of work building patience stamina.
Calvert Cliffs is rotten with shark teeth. But one this large is unusual. It is difficult to get to and can be dangerous. It's mostly private access except by boat or more people would be swarming around it.
 
13 cm teeth?

Pah! That's nothing compared with the 36.2 cm teeth of Livyatan.
This apex predator, arguably one of the biggest known predators, with the largest bite of any known creature, grew to around 17.5 m (57 ft).
It was contemporaneous with Megalodon and may have hunted them.
Livyatan's genus name was inspired by the biblical sea monster Leviathan and it is thought to have gone extinct in the Pliocene, around 5 million years ago.
The skull shown below is of a juvenile specimen.

Liv.png
 
I love the photo of this lucky young chap who found a Megalodon tooth on the Essex coast, he absolutely radiates chuffed-ness!

_130607922_2a64fa6d-1c1e-4c1d-bf27-ae1ffc3dad03.png.webp


But!

Is it a dodgy find? There are suspicions that 'someone' may have 'lost' the tooth on the beach - a strange phrase - maybe a parent wanting to encourage a budding palaeontologist?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-66372259

"A 13-year-old boy has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric creature on the Essex coast.
Ben discovered the 10cm-long (4in) tooth at Walton-on-the-Naze during a summer holiday weekend break.
The teenager's dad, Jason, said his son was "over the moon" with the find, which wildlife experts called "rare".
However, The Natural History Museum said it could have been purchased in a shop and lost on the beach by someone else..."
 
Back
Top