Megalodon

Megalodon or “big tooth” is an extinct species of shark that lived 28 to 1.5 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era. Megalodon is one of the largest and most powerful predators in the ocean. Fossil remains suggest that this giant shark may have reached a length of 50-70 feet long, and it may have resembled the modern great white shark. Megalodon may have weighed up to 100 tons. The poor preservation of Megalodon’s fossils has forced scientists to rely on the morphology of the great white shark as a model for size estimation and reconstruction.

The size of Megalodon is based on the reconstruction of its jaws and the size of its teeth. Megalodon’s teeth have been known to measure over 6 inches long, they were serrated, and where heart-shaped. Sharks are constantly shedding their teeth thousands and thousands over the course of their lifetime, Megalodon teeth have been found all over the world.

A research team from Australia and the US used computer simulations back in 2008 to calculate Megalodon’s biting power. Megalodon was capable of exerting a bite force estimated at 40,000 pounds. Megalodon’s bite is 10 times as great as that of the great white shark, over 5 times as great as that of Tyrannosaurus rex. Its bite power was an amazing 18 tons of pressure, enough power to crush the skulls of prehistoric whales.

Being a marine animal and having the buoyancy of the oceans which allows top predators to grow to massive sizes, Megalodon came to be the largest of marine predators to have ever existed in the oceans. Other giant prehistoric predators of the Mesozoic Era such as Lipleurodon and Kronosaurus grew to sizes of 30 to 40 tons, while the modern Great White Shark only grows to 3 tons. Megalodon outgrew all of these animals by reaching weights of 100 tons possible more.

Megalodon’s extinction is still not clear, why such a large animal and being an apex predator of the oceans will all of the sudden become extinct? While other types of sharks were able to survive major extinction events, Megalodon went extinct. There are some theories as what may have caused the extinction of Megalodon. Some scientists believe that global oceanic cooling and sea level drops may have played a role, others believe that the gradual disappearance of the prehistoric whales which constituted the bulk of its diet may have been the factor. It is also possible that Megalodon had become too large to sustain itself on the available food supply. Whatever the reason may be, it is suggestive that other apex predators seem to have gained from the extinction of this amazing species.