10 Facts About the Biggest Shark Ever Existed

[Music] [Applause] [Music] ten unbelievable facts about the Megalodon the Megalodon seems to be the stuff nightmares are made of or dreams if you love impressive creatures that could use you as a toothpick its full name is car careless Megalodon but some shark enthusiasts just call it the Meg whatever name it goes by this giant was the biggest baddie of the ocean when it terrorized the waters two million years ago if you're afraid of modern sharks get ready for these facts because this prehistoric predator puts them all to shame before we bite into this list don't forget to subscribe to our Channel we've got tons of fascinating videos coming out daily on the bright side of life so be sure to wring that notification bell if you don't want to miss a thing number 10 the Megalodon was the biggest shark ever we'll start with the obvious here this shark species was the largest this planet has ever seen different estimates put its size anywhere from 45 up to 60 feet in length to put that into perspective 60 feet would make the Megalodon about four times the size of the average great white shark the Meg weighed up to 100 tons again for comparison the t-rex weight of mere nine tons the biggest shark living today is the whale shark which can grow up to 40 feet long so there's really no other shark that can compare to the megalodons massive size number nine we don't have many fossils of it today there's currently a very limited amount of Megalodon fossils shark skeletons are made of cartilage which doesn't fossilize very well so that means almost all that remains of the mighty Meg are its teeth which have been found on every continent except for Asia and Antarctica given that its fossilized teeth are everywhere scientists have gathered that the Megalodon traveled throughout the world using these fossils as a guide scientists have tried to put a picture together of this giant predator actually looked like and how it lived many of the fossils have been found on shark-tooth Hill near Bakersfield California this is a popular site where people can dig for teeth while wearing protective gloves although some shark teeth have been buried for ages they can still be sharp enough to cut through the skin this is speaking of teeth number 8 the Megalodon had enormous teeth the name itself says it all Megalodon means big tooth most of its teeth were about 4 to 5 inches long but the largest tooth ever found was 7.48 inches and it was discovered in Peru with a rare size like that these fossils can be very valuable a 7 inch high quality Megalodon tooth can be sold for up to $50,000 but if you have a small tooth in your collection don't expect to get a large amount of cash for small Megalodon teeth tend to be valued quite low number 7 the Megalodon had a killer smile those teeth weren't just super massive in order to feast regularly on large prey the Meg had an impressive set of 276 feet that's sat in five rows in its mouth most fossilized teeth that have been recovered show a significant amount of wear on the tips and some have had the tips completely broken off from biting on the bones of its prey all those teeth arranged in five rows served as a backup system so that the Megalodon would never run out as soon as it lost a tooth another one would replace it within 48 hours that way this massive predator could feed his insatiable appetite and munch on prey non-stop number six it's not related to the great white shark another well-known and equally feared shark although now it seems like a puny little runt is the great white which can be found in the coastal areas of all major oceans popular belief has it that the great white shark is a descendant of the Meg but that claim has been disproved when the first fossilized teeth of the Megalodon were discovered they placed the mighty shark in the same genus as the great white but fossil discoveries that have been made since show that the Megalodon actually comes from a single evolutionary line that can be traced 60 million years back to the odor discharge number five the Megalodon had a powerful bite in order to chew on the bones of its prey the mag needed to have a very powerful bite to figure out how strong its bite was a research group led by biologist dr. Stephen row conducted simulations and reported that the Megalodon could bite down on his prey with twenty four thousand to forty thousand pounds of pressure as for the Tyrannosaurus Rex it had just twelve thousand eight hundred pounds of bite force while the great white shark has only four thousand pounds with powerful jaws like that the Megalodon could crush a small car in a second though would probably break all of its teeth in the process but no worries they'd all grow back in a few days number four its favorite dish was whales giant beasts have giant appetites and the Meg was no exception it had the roam the seven seas in order to meet its daily requirement of twenty five hundred pounds of food so that means it needed some really big prey to accomplish that goal while it feasted on just about anything that dared cross its path like fish seals and sea turtles whales were its favorite dish scientists know that the Megalodon loved to eat whales because fossilized whale bones have been found with bite marks that match the Megalodon teeth experts theorize that the Meg would dive deep into the ocean stalk its prey from below and RAM the whale at full speed fracturing its bones shocking the poor thing and thus disabling it number three their nurseries have been discovered when the Megalodon was ready to give birth would travel the shallow waters where large predators couldn't follow scientists have found several of these nurseries in the bone Valley region of Florida the Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and the gat in formation in Panama to name a few and experts know these spots are nurseries because they found one and a half inch long baby Megalodon teeth there but before your oh how cute meter starts to go off you should know that baby megalodons for about six-and-a-half feet long at birth even at that size they still needed to be protected from other big sharks and whales so like modern sharks Megalodon young probably stayed in the nursery until they were big enough to stand their own ground against larger predators number two it had competition the Megalodon wasn't the only giant to terrorize the oceans Livi Otten Maveli was a sperm whale that was over 60 feet long weighed more than 50 tons and its 14-inch teeth were the biggest of the animal kingdom the Megalodon and the Livi otten both lived in the Miocene epoch they needed massive amounts of food and since both of them had a particular taste for baleen whales they'd fight over prey and territory just imagine that epic battle number one it was top of the food chain the Megalodon was the top predator of the ocean until it wasn't the giant shark went extinct 2.6 million years ago and there are several theories as to why this happened one of them suggests climate changes to blame the Megalodon would swim in warm waters but climate change would have decreased the temperature of the oceans over the years until the Meg could no longer survive in the cold waters another theory claims that it was increased competition from large predators that left this a massive shark without any food a 2017 study published in the Journal of paleo geography paleoclimatology and paleo ecology claims that the Megalodon met its end when its prey went extinct this study the is that with a disappearance of prey the predator that feasts on it would go extinct as well since small baleen whales went extinct it's likely that the Megalodon soon followed now let's take a moment to be thankful that humans weren't around during the Meigs reign but would you prefer that the Megalodon was still alive do you know any other interesting facts about this mega shark tell us in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to stay on the bright side of life [Music]

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Keywords: huge sharks, prehistoric animals, Carcharocles Megalodon, the meg, megalodon, largest shark, enormous teeth, white shark, whale, shark food, dangerous sharks, biggest shark

Id: l2QUnzSlR24

Length: 9min 6sec (546 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 16 2018