A predator stalked the ancient
seas. A shark so large and fearsome, nothing in the seas could escape its hunger. Here are fifty of the most
insane facts about the Megalodon. #50. Jawsome The main way most people know the
megalodon shark is through recreations and reconstructions of its jawbone. You can
usually see it on display hanging in museums, including the Museum of Natural History in
New York City. It looms over people - and a close-up look indicates that we’d be nothing
more than a snack for the giant shark. The jaws could reach around three meters
wide, more than big enough for an adult human to stand in between them. It’s estimated the
shark could swallow two people at the same time. But we don’t know as much as we
would like about the Megalodon. #49. Mystery Monster It’s not hard to find Megalodon jaws on display, but why doesn’t any museum have
a complete Megalodon skeleton? No one does - because they’re impossible to find.
Their skeletons were made of cartilage, not bone, and cartilage degrades quickly and doesn’t
fossilize. So the exact anatomy of Megalodon sharks has been lost to the ages, but we can guess
what they were like based on similar sharks today. But one area of the Megalodon
left us a lot of evidence. #48. A Sharp Reminder The vast majority of Megalodon fossils
are teeth, and sharks have no shortage of those. The Megalodon had a shocking 276 teeth
lining its massive mouth. Because sharks shed their teeth and regrow them frequently,
the ancient predator littered the ocean with its larger-than-average chompers. How
much larger? A single megalodon tooth fossil found in South Carolina weighed around three
pounds and measured six and a half inches. And these teeth have been found for a long time. #47. A Founding Find A Megalodon tooth is quite the collector’s item to
put on display in the office. One founding father agreed - Thomas Jefferson was an avid fossil
collector, and had pieces of large ancient animals in his home. He had Mastodon and other ice
age fossils- but his Megalodon tooth may have been his favorite, and he had a unique way of marking
his Megalodon tooth - he put his signature on it. And sometimes these teeth are
found in unexpected places. #46. That Bites Some Megalodon teeth are found lying around
from when they fall out, but others came out prematurely - when the Megalodon bit into a
large animal and bit off more than it could chew. Scientists have found the bones of ancient
whales to contain embedded Megalodon teeth, likely indicating a close escape from death or a
fatal attack. Sometimes it’s just markings from where the Megalodon bit, but whale vertebrae
with a few embedded teeth have been found. And they had quite the bite. #45. Crush Factor Bite force is measured in Newtons and for a long
time, the Tyrannosaurus Rex was believed to have the most powerful bite in history. It’s not
hard to see why - look at those mighty jaws! But after studying the Megalodon, scientists
now believe the ancient shark had an even more powerful bite - packing a stunning pressure
of up to forty thousand pounds. There’s no way of proving it conclusively, but it may be the
most powerful bite of any creature to ever live. Now let’s break down the rest
of this massive creature. #44. How Big? With no Megalodon skeletons available and
only the teeth and vertebrae still existing, scientists had to extrapolate to figure
out just how big it actually was. Their conclusion - it was really big. The smallest adult
Megalodons were likely around thirty-three feet, but much larger teeth have been found. The
estimate of the largest Megalodons ever is as much as sixty-seven feet long, making them
one of the largest marine predators of all time. So how did they compare to today’s alpha shark? #43. Not So Great White The Great White Shark is probably
the most feared living shark, with almost no natural predators and being
responsible for more bite attacks on humans than any other shark. But compared to the
Megalodon, it’s a shrimp. The largest female Great White Sharks are around 20 feet in
length with most being no more than fifteen feet. Surfers everywhere breathe a sigh of relief
that they won’t be encountering any Megalodons. And they haven’t for a very long time. #42. Not a Man-Eater Would the Megalodon like to chow down on a human?
Maybe. Did they ever get to? Nope - because they were gone from Earth long before we were on it.
The estimate of when Megalodon lived is around 23 million years ago, at the beginning of the Miocene
era. They stuck around as the ocean’s most feared beast until around 3.6 million years ago, long
before humans evolved into their current form. And their closest descendant
may not be what you think. #41. Missing Link Most people depict the Megalodon as a giant Great
White Shark when it appears in TV and movies. In reality, while their tooth shape is pretty
similar, they seem to have evolved separately and have some similar traits. But the Megalodon
does have a closer living relative - it’s the smaller Mako shark. And in fact, ancient
great white sharks were around at the time and may have wound up being bullied out
of the hunting grounds by the Megalodon. So what did these giant beasts
eat? Anything they wanted. #40. Hungry Hungry Sharks The Megalodon was one of the largest sea animals
of the time and had no natural predators - would you want to pick a fight with it? As such, it’s
believed it was fairly indiscriminate in what it ate - if it swam in its hunting grounds and seemed
edible, it was food. Megalodon likely ate a lot of fish as well as any cephalopods or reptiles that
came into its orbit and went for some bigger prey like ancient whales as well. And the odds are
anything it set its eyes on wasn’t getting away. But one part of its diet may
be a bit more controversial. #39. Cannibal! Did Megalodon eat other sharks? It’s believed by
scientists that they did. Most other sharks at the time were much smaller than the Megalodon, and
while they may not have been the killer shark’s preferred food, it likely had no problem
chowing down when needed. This is fairly common in nature - while it’s unlikely for land
predators to hunt each other, it’s pretty common in the modern seas for one hungry fish to wander
into the hunting grounds of another and - chomp! But it’s likely nothing was hunting the Megalodon. #38. Welcome to the Apex The Megalodon was an Apex Predator - aka
a predator at the top of the food chain. While food chains on land usually only have a
few levels, it’s common for there to be many levels in the ocean and a look at the prehistoric
climate indicates there was nothing that could have hunted the Megalodon. While there may have
been some animals that could give it a fight, it’s more likely to be a competition for prey
than an attempt to make the Megalodon their prey. It was truly the king of the prehistoric seas. But how would it do against
other apex predators of the sea? #37. Whale Wars Megalodon wasn’t the only apex predator of its
era - and one was almost as massive. Livyatan, a massive extinct sperm whale, was
given an impressive name - inspired by the biblical leviathan. Its powerful
jaws snapped up seals and smaller whales, and it competed with the Megalodon for prey.
But how did it compare to the Megalodon? It was between 44 and 57 feet
long and had large, sharp teeth. While Livyatan had thicker skin and could attack
with its tail, Megalodon is believed to have had the more powerful bite force - so if the shark
gets the drop on the whale, it’s likely over. Now let’s head back to the beginning. #36. Not a Shrimp How would Megalodon compare against
the very first known apex predator? Let’s turn the clock back to the Cambrian
period when the Anomalocaris ruled the seas. This large shrimp-like arthropod had a huge
tail fan and grasping front appendages to snatch up any creature of the era. It was the
terror of the Cambrian - and to the Megalodon, it would be nothing more than a light snack.
This apex predator was little more than a foot long and could be swallowed whole with
ease. Apex predators had a long way to go. Let’s jump forward a little, as things get fishy. #35. Hard-Headed The Devonian period was where we saw the
birth of the first kings of the seas - large, bony fishes. And their king was the Dunkleosteus,
known for its distinct, armored head and its large snapping jaws. It was large, having a length
of up 28 feet and weighing more than four tons. Its bite force was over 1,300 pounds -
unparalleled for the era, but nothing compared to the Megalodon. If the two fought,
Dunkleosteus’ only hope would be its armored head breaking some teeth on the Megalodon, but
the odds are its fleshy bits would be easy prey. Now let’s jump forward to the Jurassic
period - when reptiles dominated the seas. #34. The First Reptile King It was the early Jurassic, and a
fearsome predator ruled the seas. Named Liopleurodon, it was a short-necked
plesiosaur with a large body and one deadly feature - a long snout containing powerful
jaws full of sharp teeth. Its bite force was as much as 33,000 pounds - one of the most
powerful ever recorded alongside the Megalodon. It was likely the first of the apex predators
who could have given Megalodon a true fight, but its smaller size - up to twenty-one feet in
length - would put it at a disadvantage. So would its more vulnerable neck - one bite in the wrong
place from the shark and it’s likely game over. And as the age of the dinosaurs drew on, the
apex predators of the seas only grew larger. #33. Cretaceous Warriors Mosasaurus ruled the seas during
the last days of the dinosaurs, and it’s not hard to see why - this lizard was
big. It was over twice the size of Liopleuredon, with its length topping out at fifty-six feet
in the biggest specimens. It was also much more agile than other large predators, with its
four limbs steering it and its jaws and neck more flexible than other predators of the era. But
its jaws weren’t quite as big as its competition, with a bite force of only 16,000
lbs. Mosasaurus might be able to elude the Megalodon effectively, but
it wouldn’t be able to get a bite in. But was it truly the king of the cretaceous? #32. Fear the Kronosaurus It might not have been the biggest sea predator
of the era, but the Kronosaurus might have been the deadliest. It ranged from thirty to
thirty-six feet and was most known for its massive, snapping jaws. Powerful enough
to grab large plesiosaurs out of the water, its jaws had a bite force of up to thirty
thousand pounds, more than six times as much as a modern-day crocodile. That’s still
a little below the Megalodon, and its smaller size and lack of mobility mean it would need
a lot of luck to go up against the mega-shark. And as the age of the dinosaurs
ended, new threats emerged. #31. Crocodile Rock Crocodiles have been around for over a hundred
million years, largely unchanged. If you were a massive reptilian killing machine, why would
you fix what’s broken? But in the waning days of the cretaceous, crocodiles were one thing
- bigger. The Deinosuchus could reach up to thirty-five feet in length and had the same
powerful snapping jaws as today’s alligators and crocodiles. Its bite force was stronger
than that of Tyrannosaurus at 18,000 lbs, but still well below Megalodon, and due to
its slower nature as an ambush predator, it’s unlikely it could get
the drop on the Megalodon. And as we headed into the age of mammals,
new powerhouses dominated the seas. #30. The First Whale King. You might be fooled into thinking the reptiles
of the dinosaur era survived somehow, but the Basilosaurus was something else entirely. An
early marine mammal, it was the apex predator of the Paleogene seas and would regularly eat sharks
and early dolphins. At up to sixty-six feet long, its serpent-like body was meant for fast
movement. But its bite force of 3600 pounds was nothing compared to the Megalodon, and
it’s believed to have eaten most of its prey alive. It had its eyes on smaller prey, and
would likely give Megalodon a wide berth. Megalodon was the king of the ancient
seas - but would that be true today? #29. The Modern Whale King The largest animals to ever live are in
today’s seas, including the massive blue whale. This filter-feeding whale is the largest animal
of all time, but it’s not a predator. The king of today’s predators is the modern Sperm Whale, a
bulky creature that can reach sixty-eight feet in length. Its head is a third of its length, and it
has the largest brain of any animal. Unlike other whales of its size, it hunts and eats massive
amounts of fish. But because they have smaller teeth, their bite force is much less than their
ancestor the Livyatan. They’re large enough to give the Megalodon a good fight - but they’re
not evolved to fight a shark of this size. So the Megalodon might be the king of the
seas - but is it truly the king of the sharks? #28. Whale or Shark? The Megalodon dwarfs any predatory shark
today, but there’s one that compares in size. The Whale Shark is a massive beast, reaching
over sixty feet in length and being the largest non-mammal vertebrate on the planet. But it’s
not a threat to anyone except plankton and tiny fish - it’s a filter-feeder like many whales.
While its size is comparable to the Megalodon, no specimen has been found to reach the size
of the largest estimated Megalodon - so it’s likely the Megalodon maintains its
title as the king of the sharks. And we’re still learning all we can
about this massive apex predator. #27. Heavyweight Megalodon, known by scientists as Otodus
Megalodon, wasn’t just one of the deadliest predators to ever live - it was one of the
largest. The massive shark is estimated to have weighed roughly a hundred tons at
the high end. That makes it the weight of more than two eighteen-wheeler
trucks or almost fifteen elephants. And they were big from the get-go. #26. Baby….well, you know the rest While most fish lay eggs, the majority of
modern sharks give birth to live young. That was likely also the case for the Megalodon
- and a baby Megalodon was still terrifying. Scientists collected samples of young megalodon
teeth, and the smallest specimens they found indicated that babies were still larger than
an average human - with newborn Megalodons being around six and a half feet long. And it
didn’t take long for them to start hunting. And sometimes, you could find
a lot of them in one place. #25. Hush Little Baby A nursery usually brings to mind some nice images
of many babies being cared for. But a Megalodon nursery would have been a very different place.
But that’s exactly what scientists found off the coast of Panama - a fossil collection
full of the teeth of young Megalodons. Sharks use warm-water nurseries with
shallow water to protect their young, allowing them to hunt smaller prey before they
take their rightful place atop the food chain. And their biology might not have
been exactly what was expected. #24. Hot-Blooded Most fish are cold-blooded, but scientists
increasingly think that Megalodons may have been built differently. Called regional
endothermy, it gives these massive sharks the ability to warm their bodies
independently when hunting in colder waters, giving them greater endurance and range
than most deep-sea hunters. And this has persisted to the present day - another creature
with this ability is the Great White Shark. But how did they get so big? #23. Everything’s Bigger in the Mesozoic The era might have been the Texas of time periods
because the Mesozoic era saw some of the largest mammals and other creatures to ever walk the
Earth. While they didn’t reach the size of the biggest dinosaurs, animals in this era benefited
from a high level of nutrients in the ocean. They grew larger, and that meant an abundance
of large prey in the seas for large predators to develop. But Megalodon outclassed almost all
of them - whales were among its favorite food. And they had unusual hunting techniques. #22. Blam! You might think Megalodon’s best weapon was
its razor-sharp teeth or its crushing bite. But while those might be great up-close
weapons, it actually relied on another element to give it an edge. It was fast and it
was strong - and when you combine those things, it could have rammed prey at a high speed.
Fossils of prey animals discovered had shattered spines before they were eaten - the kind of thing
that happened when a mega-shark body-slams you. But they were also masters of stealth. #21. Dun-dun Why is the ocean one of the hardest places to
avoid a predator? Because they can come at you from all directions. On land, a wolf isn’t
going to ambush you from below the ground- though Graboids certainly will. While
Megalodons were good hunters and could easily sneak up from behind, they
could also come up from under their prey - ambushing them from below like a black
hole ringed with countless razor-sharp teeth. And it was not easy to get away. #20. Speed Sharks Megalodons were huge, and that
usually doesn’t pair well with speed. But as chunky and bulky as these killer sharks
were, they’re actually believed to be very fast. Scientists studied similar sharks and
came up with an estimate that they could swim around eleven miles an hour -
faster than many of their prey animals, and more than twice the speed of
the fastest human swimmers today. And it wasn’t going to be easy to avoid them. #19. They’re Everywhere The primordial seas were far different than
today’s, and the geography of the oceans was different. But one thing was sure no matter where
an animal was swimming - a Megalodon wasn’t far away. The sharks were around most areas of the
world, and we know this because their fossils have been found on every continent of the world besides
Antarctica. They weren’t cold-weather hunters. And humans have been wondering about
these creatures for a long time. #18. Ancient Aliens? The first evidence of the Megalodon was teeth,
found almost two thousand years ago. But there were no paleontologists in those days and
the diggers who found strange giant teeth were left with one question -
what are these strange triangles? There were a lot of them, which led
Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder to speculate they were gifts from the
stars that fell during eclipses. And in the middle ages, there
were even odder theories. #17. There Be Dragons It was still hundreds of years before the
discovery of fossils would become commonplace and they would be identified, but there were
still interesting theories. Many believed these strange triangles were actually dragon
tongues or scales. They had never seen a dragon, but the look kind of matches. That led the teeth
to become fashion statements - people would wear them as pendants - and good luck charms that
people would use in traditional medicine. But eventually, there was a eureka moment. #16. The Discovery It was 1611 when Italian Naturalist Fabio
Colonna realized what these mysterious items actually were. They weren’t eclipse
tears or tongues, they were shark teeth. It would be more than fifty years before it was
proven to the scientific community, as Nicolaus Steno published a work discussing the anatomy of
a shark. Shockingly, the teeth looked exactly like giant versions of those teeth, and people realized
that the ancient oceans were a very scary place. The work of recreating the
Megalodon would increase from there. #15. An Iffy Estimate Only teeth and jaw fragments of the Megalodon
were found, so it fell to scientists to try to create a better picture of its size. The first
to try successfully was American zoologist Bashford Dean in 1909. He created a massive jaw
that could have belonged to a creature almost a hundred feet long - but he had overestimated the
cartilage size. Over the decades that followed, different scientists would have different
estimates and the debate is ongoing to this day. But another piece of evidence has been found. #14. Ew Aside from teeth, jaw fragments, and vertebrae, one more piece of evidence has been found
- coprolites. These are fossilized pieces of Megalodon poop and have given scientists
the only known evidence of the creature’s internal physiology. This is because the poops are
spiral-shaped, indicating that the sharks’ lower intestines may have been corkscrew-shaped.
This is similar to many of today’s sharks. And the Megalodon has made a big
impact ever since it was discovered. #13. Place of Honor Forty-five of fifty US states have a state
fossil, usually one found within their borders. The most common choices include Mammoths,
dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals, or even ancient fish and squids. But two states picked sharks.
Georgia picked a patch of smaller shark teeth from the Cretaceous-Miocene era, and North
Carolina picked the Megalodon’s massive chomper. And soon enough, Hollywood got into the action. #12. Shark Attack! The 1970s blockbuster Jaws, based on the
book by Peter Benchley, made millions of people in America terrified of sharks. Its
oversized robot shark, nicknamed Bruce, was one of the most advanced robot-beasts ever
used in the film. But compared to the Megalodon, Bruce was actually a shrimp - less than
half the size of the legendary beast. But the Megalodon would make
its film debut soon enough. #11. Schlock Shark The low-budget film company The Asylum,
notorious for rip-off movies like Snakes on a Train and Transmorphers, would get in
on the action with the Mega Shark series. A giant shark would somehow get into battles with
other creatures like Giant Octopus or Crocosaurus. Needless to say, there was very little in the
way of scientific accuracy in these films. But one franchise would
give the Megalodon its due. #10. Call Him Meg Writer Steve Alten knew the Megalodon
was primed for a starring role, and his 1997 book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror,
brought the Megalodon back into the public eye. It spawned several sequels and fans waited for
a movie adaptation. They waited 21 years, but the 2018 action movie The Meg pitted Jason Statham
against the ancient beast. While the movie wasn’t believed to be entirely accurate if you asked
paleontologists, they got closer than The Asylum. Did you ever want to face the Megalodon head-on? #9. Boss Fight In 1998, video game fans got a chance to come
up close and personal with the Megalodon. They just had to step inside a video
game cabinet called The Ocean Hunter. This Japanese rail shooting game pitted a
steampunk hunter against a host of sea monsters. The bosses included a giant squid, a massive
anglerfish, an Elasmosaurus, and yes, a Megalodon. Ironically, the giant shark here
was named Leviathan - closer to its whale rival. But one place saw the Megalodon
get an even bigger spotlight. #8. Welcome to Shark Week For one week every year, the Discovery
Channel airs a host of documentaries and pseudo-science programs dedicated to sharks.
While marine biologists have claimed this is sensationalistic and puts sharks in more
danger, it’s their highest-rated week of the year. It was only a matter of time before
the Megalodon got into the spotlight - and in one fictionalized film on Animal Planet, they even
had the massive shark going up against mermaids. But one piece of content
was even more controversial. #7. Extinct or Not? In 2013, Discovery Channel featured a film
titled “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives”. It was a collection of evidence that the shark
was still around and stalking the oceans, with only one problem - it
was all completely fictional, with even the scientists appearing turning
out to be paid actors. Discovery Channel was hit with a wave of bad press, laughed all the
way to the bank, and produced several sequels. But is there any real evidence
that the Megalodon is still alive? #6. Blast From the Past In 1873, everything we knew about the Megalodon
was challenged when the HMS Challenger discovered a cache of seemingly fresh teeth. Scientists
dated them to as little as 11,000 years old - which would mean the shark was sharing
space with humans. But further investigation revealed the well-preserved teeth actually had
a coating of manganese dioxide, which gave them a much lower rate of decomposition and gave
them a white appearance even when fossilized. But if the Megalodon is
truly gone - how did it die? #5. Deep Freeze One of the first theories was climate change
- a word we’re hearing a lot about now. The last Megalodon fossils are dated around the
time of an ice age, and scientists thought that might have finished off the massive beasts.
The sharks preferred warmer climates and their young relied on them, and their prey moving
to colder waters might have finished them off. But there’s reason to doubt this theory. #4. Polar Bear Club Scientists continuing to study Megalodon
physiology discovered that the sharks likely could swim in waters near the freezing
point. This was one of the best pieces of evidence yet that they could have weathered the changing
climate, due to not being fully cold-blooded. But just because they could survive,
doesn’t mean anything could. #3. Hunger Pangs What actually killed off the Megalodon?
The most likely theory is that they died due to changes in the food chain. While
they could survive in harsh climates, many of their preferred prey animals went
extinct during the ice age. Being massive, the Megalodon needed a lot of food, and as the
climate changed, it became harder and harder to find it. Competition became tougher and the
population dwindled - eventually to nothing. But could they still be lurking deep down below? #2. Predators of the Deep A common theory and one that shows up in a lot
of fictionalized Megalodon stories is that they survived and became deep-sea predators - down
where no one can see them. But this is unlikely. The deep-sea ecosystem doesn’t have enough food
sources to sustain massive carnivorous beasts. This leads to one simple fact. #1. Hail and Farewell The Megalodon is most definitely extinct. While
the exact cause of its extinction isn’t known beyond a doubt, most of the giant animals on land
and sea died around this era. And while theories abound, one fact is not up for debate. Not only
have no Megalodon fossils been found dated less than 2.6 million years, but no evidence of their
teeth or bites on other animals can be found. If Megalodon was still around, it would need
to eat. So the logical conclusion is that it’s joined the dinosaurs - and swimmers
everywhere can breathe a sigh of relief. Want to know more about how
this massive beast met its end? Check out “The Why and How of the Megalodon
Extinction (What Killed the Giant Shark)”, or watch “Largest Animals Size Comparison”
for how it fares against the big guns.
