Megalodon Sharks Were Prehistoric Nightmares. Why Did They Go Extinct?
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Megalodons—the iconic extinct sharks that dominated the ocean millions of years ago—have been portrayed in Hollywood blockbusters and sci-fi novels as oversize great white sharks. But new research suggests the prehistoric predator was leaner, and slower, than its modern-day stand-in.
“A great white is bulky,” said Phil Sternes, a shark biologist and co-author of a recent study of megalodons. “It looks very torpedo-shaped, kind of narrow in the head, but really thick in the middle.”
A megalodon, he and his colleagues found, was more slender and elongated from head to tail.
This body shape, they said, might explain why the megalodon, the apex marine predator for about 20 million years, mysteriously went extinct about 3.6 million years ago.
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Around the time the meg went extinct, great white sharks had begun spreading globally. At 12 feet long, adult great whites were about the same size as megalodon babies, but they were the more agile hunters, according to Kenshu Shimada, professor of paleobiology at DePaul University in Chicago and lead author of the study.
At the same time, Sternes said, the oceans were starting to cool down—another tick against the meg. Being gigantic in colder waters meant megs likely had to eat more food to stay warm relative to great whites, while competing with them for seals, whales and other prey.
“This is where the body form actually now becomes very important,” Sternes said. “When you had no competition, you were probably fine, but now you’re competing with something else that might be better, and you have a limited resource. That’s probably just too much pressure to overcome.”
https://www.wsj.com/science/how-megalodon-shark-extinct-03ff0e0d?mod=Searchresults_pos1&page=1
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Did you know... you can still find megalodon teeth wash up on the shores near where @Aqua-Letifer lives in Maryland. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/14/us/maryland-girl-finds-shark-tooth-scn-trnd
I'm surprised we haven't seen a trump-inspired MAGA LaDon.
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Did you know... you can still find megalodon teeth wash up on the shores near where @Aqua-Letifer lives in Maryland. https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/14/us/maryland-girl-finds-shark-tooth-scn-trnd
I'm surprised we haven't seen a trump-inspired MAGA LaDon.
@89th said in Megalodon Sharks Were Prehistoric Nightmares. Why Did They Go Extinct?:
I'm surprised we haven't seen a trump-inspired MAGA LaDon.
The article says it was slimmer than the great white rather than being built like a big fat torpedo.
