A new study shows the Megalodon, a gigantic shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, was more slender than earlier studies suggested. This finding changes scientists’ understanding of Megalodon behavior, ancient ocean life, and why the sharks went extinct.
A new study shows the Megalodon, a gigantic shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, was more slender than earlier studies suggested. This finding changes scientists’ understanding of Megalodon behavior, ancient ocean life, and why the sharks went extinct.
The Megalodon or megatooth shark is typically portrayed as a super-sized monster in popular culture, with recent examples in the sci-fi films « The Meg » (2018) and « Meg 2: The Trench » (2023). Previous studies assume that the shark likely reached lengths of at least 50 feet and possibly as much as 65 feet.
However, the Megalodon is largely known only from its teeth and vertebrae in the fossil record—a rather incomplete set of data from which to draw assumptions. Thus, the modern great white shark was traditionally used as a model for Megalodon bodies in previous studies. That model led researchers to conclude that the shark was round and stocky like great whites.
« Our team reexamined the fossil record, and discovered the Megalodon was more slender and possibly even longer than we thought. Therefore, a better model might be the modern mako shark, » said UCR biologist and paper first author Phillip Sternes. « It still would have been a formidable predator at the top of the ancient marine food chain, but it would have behaved differently based on this new understanding of its body.
