The megalodon, which reached 20 m and 100 tons. The owner of the most powerful bite in the animal world would have appeared more than 23 million years ago and became extinct around 1.5 million years ago. It destroyed prey with teeth as long as 19 cm, which scientists currently use to estimate its appearance.
The fossilized teeth of the megalodon were preserved because they were numerous – there were about 300, spread over a mouth of up to 2 m – and because of the constant change of the shark’s dentition. Remains found as far away as the US and Australia suggest that it swam and hunted the world over.
HEAVY CLIMATE
Predator dominated the seas for 20 million years, but could not resist the cooling of the planet
IMMORTAL REMAINS
The skeleton of sharks is made of cartilage, which deteriorates easily. What archaeologists are left with are the hardest pieces, like the central part of the pith. By counting the rings marked on the disks that form the medulla, it is possible to estimate the lifespan of megalodon.
KILLING MACHINE
The megalodon’s mouth had five rows of sharp, serrated teeth, which ripped into the flesh of its prey. Using a computer model of the giant’s head, Australian researchers estimated the bite force to be between 11 and 18 tonnes, enough to crush a car.
DENTAL TREATMENT
Reassembling the jaw with fossilized teeth is the main way to calculate the dimensions of the animal. According to a formula created by North American researchers, a 16.5 cm tooth would be compatible with a 15.6 m long shark, equivalent to four cars in a row.
The largest reconstructed megalodon jaw measures 3.35 m wide by 2.74 m high.
DINNER TIME
The favorite prey was whales – small (like Cetotherium) or much larger than itself. According to Venâncio Guedes de Azevedo, from the Oceanographic Institute of USP, the bichão’s method of attack consisted of eating the prey’s fins and then waiting for it to weaken.
DOCUMENTED SIZE
The megalodon resembled the great white shark, but with a short snout, sunken eyes and wide fins. It measured between 12 and 16 m, from head to tail, but some estimates indicate a giant of up to 20 m. To compare, the great white shark measures only 6 m, equivalent to the size of a megalodon calf.
THE SHARK SCALE
The scarcity of food and competition with large predators, such as the killer whale (8 m) and the blue whale (30 m) – which also preyed on their young – led to the extinction of the megalodons. The cooling of the planet, around 2.5 million years ago, would have killed the last animals of the species, which lived better in warmer waters.
Consulting Venâncio Guedes de Azevedo, doctoral student at the Oceanographic Institute of USP, and Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum (USA)
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