What If MEGALODON Sharks Were Still Alive?

ah sharks the terror of the Seas the jaws and jaws the only fishies that give us nightmares well usually who doesn't get a chill when they hear those two notes don't know no no have you ever wondered what life might be like it much much larger sharks were lurking somewhere out there in our oceans say prehistoric sized sharks would teeth the size of a subway 6-inch sub of the day but made out of shark tooth well that's exactly the sort of fun stuff we'll be thinking about today [Music] all right so first things first what is a Megalodon shark carcharocles megalodon the Megalodon which literally means big tooth is an extinct species of massive gigantic very large very scary shark the Megalodon lived according to our good friend Wikipedia between two point three and two point six million years ago yes from the early Miocene until the end of the Pliocene period these literal monsters roam the deep terrifying fishes and occasionally surfacing to terrify some of our very very distant ancestors to give you some perspective they look a lot like a great white shark only about three times larger in case you don't know sharks pecks off the top of your head the largest great white sharks ever recorded are around 19 feet long and 4,200 pounds with the average great white being much smaller fossils of megalodons indicate they were on average about 33 feet long and could reach sizes as large as 52 feet or maybe even 60 feet long q oh and did I mention their massive crushing jaws it's estimated that they could exert a bite force of up to one hundred and eight thousand five hundred and fourteen to one hundred and eighty 2201 Newtons and they're serrated yes sir aided teeth at over six inches long per tooth were perfect for ripping through flesh and bone in case you were wondering where they're named big tooth came from on the other hand some people also call them Meg short for Megalodon which is a slightly less intimidating nickname hello Meg yikes moving on why did they go extinct long story short they were killed off by climate change not the kind we humans have been rapidly inflicting on the globe with our cars and leaving the water running while we brush our teeth but the sort that slowly changes things naturally across the planet over millions of years over time changing water temperatures forced the megalodons to relocate along with much of the other contemporaneous sea life the oceanic cooling of the Ice Age did not sit well with these warm water towers the competition they faced for food from leviathans and ancient killer whales yeah I know I didn't help any of them to survive the lowering temperatures made it harder for the Megalodon to find places to you know settle down and have a family and the relocation and dwindling population of baleen whales likely left them snack lists with all the oceanic predators suddenly confined to a much smaller space and all the prey similarly struggling with changes to their environment or departing food became scarce and ultimately these creepy pack men of the salty brine died off along with many of the other giant sea predators of their time so what would have had to happen for them to have not gone extinct well basically if none of that had happened we might still have megalodons around today say the ice age never came through the water would have been warmer and food more abundant so essentially we'd have much more diverse marine life top to bottom in that case it'd mean more plankton more fish more whales it would also mean we'd likely still also be sharing the planet with some of the other larger predators of the time so it's not all sunshine and lollipops and giant killing machines named mech predators like the Leviathan better known as the inspiration for the Leviathan and Moby Dick or the Titanus a massive carnivorous bird how would it affect life today if they weren't extinct well forgetting all that if just the Megalodon we're around today life probably wouldn't be all that different not now anyway we don't depend heavily on sea transportation anymore to make the world run that said the threat of them out there alone could have changed the course of history if even one or two major players in our world had decided not to risk running into bitey bitey creep faced over here plus megalodons liking warm water tend to stay closer to the coast and surface than many other sharks so you'd probably get a few more sightings of them than their Shire counterparts and you know maybe the occasional mega attack and I don't mean the one where your cousin eat your ice cream so you may be asking is there any chance the megalodons are still out there I thought I saw a news story about someone spotting one one time great question well barring them having adapted and evolved in a major way in the last 2.6 million years and successfully staying entirely hidden despite being presumably about a 12,000 pound fish it's pretty unlikely but weird things have happened in 1976 they discovered megamouth sharks out there in the deeps and since then only about a hundred have ever been seen all that said again the Megalodon is affection for warmer waters near the coast make it unlikely the thing could have gone undetected so long or survived the ice age but hey maybe some kooky scientists will use its DNA to resurrect the Megalodon and all of its fun friends on some island somewhere which would make a perfectly safe theme park right right Nedry an injury in the meantime you can spot the Megalodon all over film and TV for example shark attack 3 Megalodon featuring esteemed actor John Barrowman or the dubious pseudo-documentary Megalodon the monster shark lives from Discovery Channel or you can check out a model of its uncomfortably massive jaws at the American Museum of Natural History in beautiful New York City so to sum it up the Megalodon was an unsettlingly giant shark in went extinct because the water got too cold for it but if the water had stayed as it was or the Megalodon had adapted we might have ended up with Megalodon swimming around menacingly today if that were the case they'd probably eat the occasional surfer and deter sweets from doing that thing they do where they drive their liquor around the world on a boat for some reason but it's almost definite that there are no Megalodon sharks out there you're safe for now if you enjoyed this video then why not subscribe hit that Bell icon as well so you're more likely to get notified of our noble answers to your burning questions also if you have any questions you want answered make sure to tell me in the comment section down below and to keep filling your brain with regal knowledge check out these videos here they're magnificent

Channel: QUESTION KING

Views: 2,398,936

Rating: 4.5759931 out of 5

Keywords: QuestionKing, Question King, What Happens, Megalodon, largest shark, Unbelievable Facts, Largest predator, Massive teeth, Megalodon nursery areas, Tongue stones, Evolution, Extinction, largest shark in the world, biggest shark in the world, sea monster, world biggest shark, deadliest creature, shark attack, megalodon shark, deep blue shark, biggest shark ever, whale shark, megalodon sightings, big shark, biggest great white shark, What If Megalodon Sharks Were Still Alive

Id: 3asjiDOvMOw

Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 21 2018