How big was the megalodon? Giant shark megalodon. Is there a monster shark megalodon? The largest megalodon

The result of the ongoing debate about whether Megalodon is alive or is it still a long historical past, today there can be an almost unequivocal answer - yes, the Megalodon shark is alive!
In addition, the opinions of scrupulous ichthyologists are increasingly inclined to the conclusion that soon a giant monster may appear on the surface in all its glory.

2014 - new facts-sensations
Every year, the "piggy bank" of meager and partly classified information about Megalodon is replenished with new discoveries in the study of its biology, and new facts of its discovery in the oceans.

Some of these episodes are filtered out at the stages of information verification, some remain inaccessible (due to various reasons, we will consider this in more detail), and some still seep into the public.

In other words, we can dispose of only a third of the data that neither the scientists themselves nor simple common sense reject.

Megalodon is alive: data from satellites
In the summer of 2014, several orbital complexes of a number of countries (which increases the chances of the veracity of the information) detected large underwater objects at shallow depths in the region of the Pacific island of Papua New Guinea.

These objects are:

They did not have dimensions and shapes corresponding to one or another underwater / surface military means;
showed little activity, sometimes completely hiding in the ocean depths;
were large for common biological forms;
for a long time they could lurk at the depths, which denies their analogy with whales.
The opinions of scientists on this matter are identical: these unusual objects in terms of body shape and behavior are sharks, but very large sharks. Not a single great white shark has yet reached a length of more than 16 meters. Namely, such "dimensional" data were recorded by instruments from space.

In addition, the place of discovery of these "super-sharks" is directly close to the Mariana Trench - the place of the alleged mysterious "registration" of Megalodon.

Megalodon discovered by submarine
Similar information was broadcast by the submarine radars of our country, Japan and China. But the object was "tracked" by sonar systems farther from the island of Papua, namely in the waters of the Philippines.

The military sailors noticed, however, that the mysterious stranger clearly "left" communication with them, also attempting to dive to very great depths.

The data on its parametric data coincided with the information of satellites, the nature of the movement corresponded to the "behavior" of a living being, not a machine, and the reaction to signals from submarines was also distinguished by the unpredictability of living biology.

The comments of experts on underwater cases of a meeting of submarines and a discovered object similar to a living Megalodon are as follows:

Sizes and shapes are quite suitable for the data of a large shark.
The non-aggressiveness of the object can be explained by a number of reasons, among which the main one is the caution of the predator.

“Yes, it is quite possible that Megalodon survived today, including thanks to such a new quality for itself as caution,” says Max Brut from the University of Florida. weakened or not hungry, but because this is a new round of his evolution.

The nature of Megalodon is certainly transforming under modern conditions ocean life. This is where the instinct of self-preservation kicks in.

Could Megalodon be alive if it remained at the same level of adaptive capabilities? No, of course not. I would not be surprised that if this super-predator is ever caught, then in its cranium we will find completely different brains of its ancient ancient relative.

You understand that the strongest survive, including if rationality is also present in his strength.

Megalodon hunting facts - reports from fishermen
Of course, Megalodon's caution does not negate its predatory behavior. It's just that this monster's aggression has become more or less targeted. We already know how much energy any attack takes from a shark, and not all of them in most cases become effective.

It is quite obvious that hunting Megalodon is also a "troublesome" matter. As scientists have calculated, a living monster needs up to 1.2 thousand kg of food.

It is clearly not easy to kill such an amount of live weight, especially in the depleted biocenosis of the modern ocean.

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In 2014 and 2015, 6 cases were recorded, similar in development of events and consequences, and demonstrating the facts of attacks of a large species of sharks on ships and boats of fishermen.

What they had in common was:

Proximity of water areas - all six episodes happened in the Pacific Ocean, in its western and southern parts at great depths.
The hull of the floating facility suffered - large crevices in the bottom or huge holes in the side parts.
Attacks occurred either when a boat or ship removed gear with a catch, or when they were placed at certain points.
In all cases, the attack was accompanied by the appearance of a large shark fin above the water, strong water disturbance, and in two cases, the death of crew members.
In one case, namely the episode of August 15, 2014 in Indonesian waters, a fishing schooner of local registry was almost completely rammed by an underwater object. At the same time, 4 people from the team died.

Scientists who studied the nature and traces of these holes and teeth were also unanimous in their conclusions - they belong to a shark, a predator of very large dimensions and very heavy weight(impact force exceeded 17 tons).

However, it was not even these facts that led the scientific community to the unequivocal conclusion that this is Megalodon. Yet another piece of evidence has been discovered that casts aside any doubt as to whether Megalodon is alive or dead for millennia...

Important natural evidence for the existence of Megalodon
The cases of death of large whales both in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans also helped to publish this unequivocal natural "argument" in favor of the living Megalodon. Military and industrial sailors several times this year stumbled upon the bodies of dead whales, near which sharks circled.
In two cases, the situation allowed for partial examination of these carcasses for the cause of death. And in these two episodes, amazing data were discovered - both animals died from bites by huge jaws.

The shape of this bite was similar to the structure of the shark's jaw, with only a slight difference.

The top third tooth was not a great white shark.

It belonged to the Megalodon shark, which was thought to be extinct!

A few years ago, US scientists made a second attempt to reconstruct the jaws of this super-shark. The first was implemented at the beginning of the last century and since then has proved its "failure" several times.

This time, the entire jaw of Megalodon was made up of real teeth that have been found all over the world. And it was the third upper tooth of his jaw that was the "main link".

In the white shark, it is located at an angle, but in Megalodon, it is at a right angle, this gives the appearance of the famous predator a different look.

Scientists have been putting together this “puzzle” of the jaws of the most ancient shark for a long time, and now this tooth is the very strong evidence that Megalodon is alive. Otherwise, whose jaw traces were found both on ships and on whale carcasses?

Traces with a "straight" third tooth are an argument of nature itself.

We expect the appearance of Megalodon in the coming years
So, 2014 and 2015 revealed to the world the secret of all the oceans - Megalodon exists, it began to manifest itself as a hunter, but a hunter of a different, more hazardous type- careful, rational and purposeful.

We have received the real facts of his presence, we have part of scientific research leading institutions in the world.

Confirmation of the life of Megalodon in our modern ocean will soon not be needed at all - we will see it ourselves, we will be able to film it, to study it in laboratories.
There is not much left, nature does not stop in development, we just need to be prepared for its surprises. And it is not at all necessary to clone this shark by DNA, Megalodon is already more alive than all living sharks!

But that's why this information is hidden, what could be the reason for this concealment?

Shark Megalodon - elite prehistoric predator

It is difficult now to imagine that the waters of the World Ocean pose a threat in the form of a 20-meter dangerous predator. A terrible giant shark against all the inhabitants of the sea will always come out the winner. She has almost no enemies, she is merciless and strong.

Now it looks more like a fantasy, but some 10-15 million years ago, which is quite small for the history of the Earth, real monster sharks plied the expanses of the seas and oceans.

Megalodons, this is the name given by scientists to fossil giant sharks, amaze our imagination with their huge size and mass. It is believed that adults of these fish reached 20-25 meters in length and weighed 48 tons.

The fossilized teeth of Megalodon found by archaeologists inspire fear, because some of them reach 20 cm in length. And given that there are more than a dozen such teeth in the mouth, but the jaws themselves are 3 meters high, you think about all the power of the shark that existed in antiquity.

Not everyone knows that after the disappearance of the dinosaurs, the super-predator megalodon climbed to the top of the food chain, however, he seized power over other animals not on land, but in the endless waters of the oceans.

Description of megalodon

The name of this gigantic shark that lived in the Paleogene - Neogene (and according to some data, reached the Pleistocene) is translated from Greek as "big tooth". It is believed that the megalodon kept at bay marine life quite a long time, appearing about 28.1 million years ago and sinking into oblivion about 2.6 million years ago.

Appearance

A lifetime portrait of a megalodon (a typical cartilaginous fish devoid of bones) was recreated from its teeth, which are scattered in abundance across the ocean. In addition to teeth, the researchers found vertebrae and entire vertebral columns preserved due to the high concentration of calcium (the mineral helped the vertebrae to withstand the weight of the shark and the stress that arose from muscle efforts).

This is interesting! Before the Danish anatomist and geologist Niels Stensen, the teeth of an extinct shark were considered ordinary stones until he identified the rocky formations as megalodon teeth. It happened in the 17th century, after which Stensen was called the first paleontologist.

To begin with, a shark jaw was reconstructed (with five rows of strong teeth, whose total number reached 276), which, according to paleogenetics, was 2 meters. Then they set about the body of the megalodon, giving it the maximum dimensions, which was typical for females, and also based on the assumption that the monster was closely related to the white shark.

The restored skeleton, 11.5 m long, resembles a skeleton, sharply increased in width / length, and frightens visitors to the Maritime Museum of Maryland (USA). A wide skull, giant toothy jaws and a blunt short snout - as ichthyologists say, "the face of the megalodon was a pig." Generally repulsive and terrifying appearance.

By the way, nowadays scientists have already moved away from the thesis about the similarity of megalodon and carcharodon (white shark) and suggest that outwardly it rather resembled a multiply enlarged sand shark. In addition, it turned out that the behavior of megalodon (due to its huge size and special ecological niche) was strikingly different from all modern sharks.

Megalodon Dimensions

Disputes about the maximum size of the superpredator are still ongoing, and a number of methods have been developed to determine its true size: someone suggests starting from the number of vertebrae, others draw a parallel between the size of the teeth and the length of the body. The triangular teeth of megalodon are still found in different parts of the world, which indicates the wide distribution of these sharks throughout the oceans.

This is interesting! Carcharodon has the most similar teeth in shape, but the teeth of its extinct relative are more massive, stronger, almost three times larger and more evenly serrated. Megalodon (unlike related species) does not have a pair of lateral teeth, which gradually disappeared from its teeth.

Megalodon was armed with the largest teeth (in comparison with other living and extinct sharks) in the entire history of the Earth. Their oblique height, or diagonal length, reached 18–19 cm, and the lowest canine grew up to 10 cm, while the tooth of a white shark (the giant of the modern shark world) does not exceed 6 cm.

Comparison and study of the remains of megalodon, consisting of fossilized vertebrae and numerous teeth, led to the idea of ​​its colossal size. Ichthyologists are sure that an adult megalodon towered up to 15–16 meters with a mass of about 47 tons. More impressive parameters are considered debatable.

Character and lifestyle

Giant fish, to which the megalodon belonged, are rarely fast swimmers - for this they do not have enough endurance and the necessary degree of metabolism. Their metabolism is slowed down, and their movement is not energetic enough: by the way, according to these indicators, the megalodon is comparable not so much with the white shark as with the whale shark. Another vulnerable spot of the superpredator is the low strength of cartilage, inferior in strength bone tissue, even taking into account their increased calcination.

Megalodon simply could not lead an active lifestyle due to the fact that a huge mass muscle tissue(muscles) were attached not to bones, but to cartilage. That is why the monster, looking for prey, preferred to sit in ambush, avoiding intense pursuit: the megalodon was hampered by low speed and a meager stamina. Now 2 methods are known, with the help of which the shark killed its victims. She chose the method, focusing on the dimensions of the gastronomic facility.

This is interesting! The first method was a crushing ram applied to small cetaceans - the megalodon attacked areas with hard bones (shoulders, upper spine, chest) to break them and injure the heart or lungs.

Having experienced a blow to vital organs, the victim quickly lost the ability to move and died from severe internal injuries. Megalodon invented the second method of attack much later, when massive cetaceans, which appeared in the Pliocene, entered the sphere of his hunting interests. Ichthyologists have found many tail vertebrae and bones from flippers belonging to large Pliocene whales, with bite marks from megalodon. These finds led to the conclusion that the superpredator first immobilized large prey by biting off / tearing off its fins or flippers, and only then finished it off completely.

Lifespan

Range, habitats

The fossil remains of megalodon told that its world population was numerous and occupied almost the entire oceans, with the exception of cold regions. According to ichthyologists, megalodon was found in temperate and subtropical waters of both hemispheres, where the water temperature fluctuated in the range of + 12 + 27 ° C.

Teeth and vertebrae of a super-shark found in different places the globe, such as:

• North America;
• South America;
• Japan and India;
• Europe;
• Australia;
• New Zealand;
• Africa.

Megalodon teeth were found far from the main continents - for example, in the Mariana Trench Pacific Ocean. And in Venezuela, super-predator teeth were found in freshwater sediments, which led to the conclusion that megalodon is adapted to life in fresh water (like a bull shark).

Megalodon Diet

Until toothed whales like killer whales appeared, the monster shark, as it should be for a super-predator, sat at the top of the food pyramid and did not limit itself in the choice of food. A wide range of living creatures was explained by the monstrous size of the megalodon, its massive jaws and huge teeth with a small cutting edge. Due to its size, the megalodon coped with such animals that no modern shark is able to overcome.

This is interesting! From the point of view of ichthyologists, megalodon, with its short jaw, was not able (unlike the giant mosasaurus) to tightly capture and effectively dismember large prey. He usually tore off fragments of the skin and superficial muscles.

It has now been established that the basic food of the megalodon was smaller sharks and turtles, whose shells responded well to the pressure of powerful jaw muscles and the impact of numerous teeth.

The diet of megalodon, along with sharks and sea turtles, included:

• bowhead whales;
• small sperm whales;
• minke whales;
• odobenocetops;
• cetoteria (baleen whales);
• porpoises and sirens;
• dolphins and pinnipeds.

Megalodon did not hesitate to attack objects from 2.5 to 7 m long, for example, primitive baleen whales, which could not resist the superpredator and did not differ in high speed to escape from it. In 2008, a team of researchers from the US and Australia determined the bite force of a megalodon using computer simulations.

The results of the calculation were considered stunning - megalodon squeezed the victim 9 times stronger than any current shark, and 3 times more tangible than combed crocodile(holder of the current record for bite power). True, in terms of absolute bite force, Megalodon was still inferior to some extinct species, such as Deinosuchus, Hoffmann's Mosasaurus, Sarcosuchus, Purussaurus and Daspletosaurus.

natural enemies

Despite the indisputable status of a superpredator, the megalodon had serious enemies (they are also food competitors). Ichthyologists include toothed whales, more precisely, sperm whales like zygophysiters and Melville's leviathans, as well as some giant sharks, for example, Carcharocles chubutensis from the genus Carcharocles. Sperm whales and later killer whales were not afraid of adult super-sharks and often hunted juvenile megalodon.

Extinction of megalodon

The disappearance of the species from the face of the Earth is timed to coincide with the junction of the Pliocene and Pleistocene: it is believed that megalodon died out about 2.6 million years ago, and possibly much later - 1.6 million years ago.

Causes of extinction

Paleontologists still cannot accurately name the reason that became decisive for the death of the megalodon, and therefore they talk about a combination of factors (other top predators and global climate change). It is known that in the Pliocene epoch, the bottom between North and South America heaved up, and the Pacific and Atlantic oceans divided the Isthmus of Panama. Warm currents, having changed directions, could no longer deliver the necessary amount of heat to the Arctic, and North hemisphere cooled down noticeably.

This is the first negative factor that affected the way of life of megalodons, accustomed to warm waters. In the Pliocene, small whales were replaced by large ones, which preferred the cold northern climate. Populations of large whales began to migrate, swimming away to cool waters in summer, and the megalodon lost its usual prey.

Important! Around the middle of the Pliocene, without year-round access to large prey, megalodons began to starve, which provoked a surge in cannibalism, in which the young were particularly affected. The second reason for the extinction of megalodon is the appearance of the ancestors of modern killer whales, toothed whales, endowed with more developed brain and leading a collective way of life.

Due to their solid size and inhibited metabolism, megalodons lost out to toothed whales in terms of high-speed swimming and maneuverability. Megalodon was also vulnerable in other positions - it was not able to protect its gills, and also periodically fell into tonic immobility (like most sharks). It is not surprising that killer whales often feasted on young megalodons (hiding in coastal waters), and when united, they also killed adults. It is believed that the megalodons that lived in the southern hemisphere became the most recent extinct.

Megalodon alive?

Some cryptozoologists are sure that the monster shark could well have survived to this day. In their conclusions, they proceed from the well-known thesis: a species is classified as extinct if no signs of its stay on the planet are found for more than 400 thousand years. But how, in this case, to interpret the findings of paleontologists and ichthyologists? The "fresh" teeth of megalodons found in the Baltic Sea and near Tahiti were recognized as practically "children's" - the age of the teeth, which did not even have time to completely petrify, is 11 thousand years.

Another relatively recent surprise, dating back to 1954, is 17 monstrous teeth stuck in the hull of the Australian ship Rachel Cohen and discovered while cleaning the bottom of shells. The teeth were analyzed and the verdict was that they belong to a megalodon.

This is interesting! Skeptics call the Rachel Cohen incident a hoax. Their opponents never tire of repeating that the World Ocean has so far been studied by 5–10%, and it is impossible to completely exclude the existence of megalodon in its depths.

Adherents of the theory of the modern megalodon armed themselves with iron arguments proving the secrecy of the shark tribe. So, the world learned about the whale shark only in 1828, and only in 1897 from the depths of the oceans a goblin shark surfaced (in the literal and figurative senses), previously classified as irrevocably extinct species.

Only in 1976 did mankind become acquainted with the inhabitants of the deep sea, largemouth sharks, when one of them got stuck in an anchor chain thrown by a research vessel near about. Oahu (Hawaii). Since then, largemouth sharks have been seen no more than 30 times (usually in the form of carrion on the coast). It has not yet been possible to carry out a total scan of the World Ocean, and no one has yet set such a large-scale task for themselves. And the megalodon itself, which has adapted to deep water, will not approach the coast (because of its huge size).

The eternal rivals of the super-shark, sperm whales, have adapted to the considerable pressure of the water column and feel good, plunging 3 kilometers and occasionally floating up to take a breath of air. Megalodon, on the other hand, has (or had?) an undeniable physiological advantage - it has gills that supply the body with oxygen. The megalodon has no good reason to reveal its presence, which means that there is hope that people will still hear about it.

The largest carnivorous marine animal that ever existed was the prehistoric monster Megalodon, a direct relative of the modern great white shark.

It is believed that megalodons died out more than two million years ago, when in the Pliocene there was a cooling of the climate and shelf seas, with food familiar to megalodons, covered glaciers. Traces of these huge ancient fish have been found in the rocks of India, North Africa, Australia, Japan, Belgium and many other countries.

The most common of the entire skeleton are the teeth of an extinct sea creature: the diagonal height of one megalodon tooth can reach 18 cm - not a single creature of all that existed in the ocean had teeth of this size.

However, here's the strange thing - archaeologists began to find relatively young remains of megalodon - 10,000 - 8,000 years old. Moreover, reports of experienced crews of various sea vessels began to appear, seeing in the waves a huge yellowish back with a characteristic fin. Does all this mean that the prehistoric fish is not extinct?

Yes, it can be assumed that sailors are mistaken in confusing the silhouette of a megalodon with a silhouette of a whale shark. But how to explain the fact that the fish seen by the crew of "Christina" reached 35-37 meters in length? Even if you reduce this figure by half - whale sharks those sizes don't exist. But what was this creature?

The news spread all over the world when, in 1954, 17 huge teeth stuck in the wood were found in the bottom of the Rachel Cohen ship, which was being repaired in the dry dock of Adelaide. The width of each incisor reached 8 cm, the length - 10 cm. By the way, even in a large white, the size of the teeth does not exceed 6 cm.

The teeth set in the bottom were located in a semicircle - a bite characteristic of sharks, near a bent screw, and the diameter of the semicircle was about 2 m. The captain later recalled how the ship shuddered off the island of Timor (Indonesia). Later analysis showed that the teeth actually belonged to a megalodon. So giant predators are around somewhere?

More recently, megalodon teeth have been found on the Baltic beaches - in Otradnoy, Pionersk and Svetlogorsk. In the four years since 2008, about 800 huge teeth have been found that once belonged to prehistoric creatures.

Off the coast of Tahiti, a research vessel with a bottom grab found megalodon teeth that had not yet been petrified, their age did not exceed 11,000 years. From a geological point of view, animals whose presence has not been found for more than 400,000 years can be considered extinct.

And here everything is 11,000 years old! By the way, the goblin shark was considered extinct in the Pliocene. Her teeth were not found, the silhouette was not met, therefore they were deservedly recorded in the list of prehistoric fish.

And suddenly, unexpectedly, they found the goblin shark itself, not even its young remains, but a completely living individual itself. And not even one. The revived relic swam at great depths. Maybe the megalodon also swims somewhere nearby?

Assuming where she could wait unfavourable conditions all this time a giant carnivorous shark, then paleontologists are most likely to call the Mariana Trench - the fourth pole of the planet.

Only two people descended to the bottom of the Mariana Gorge. And they did not see anything there except deep-sea invertebrates. After that, ocean sensors and sonars began to explore the depression. They then fixed at the bottom of the movement of massive bodies of incomprehensible animals. Many scientists believe that the surviving representatives of Carcharodon megalodon may well be hiding at great depths.

Moreover, the bottom of the gorge is littered with the teeth of a prehistoric monster. Paleontologists say that megalodon, like other ancient animals, could wait out unfavorable times here, at the fourth pole of the planet, where active hydrothermal springs beat. The Mariana Trench is a very suitable place.

It turns out that periodic rumors that a giant shark has been seen somewhere can be true? Perhaps the megalodon left its shelter to make sure that the world above became quite suitable for existence?

If so, very soon, when global warming leads to warming of the world's oceans, we will be able to see the lord of salt waters again - the huge shark Carcharodon megalodon.

As for the Mariana Trench, according to some ichthyologists, due to the presence of active hydrothermal springs at its bottom, there may be colonies of prehistoric marine animals that have survived to this day.

There is evidence that in 1918, lobster fishermen from the city of Port Stephens (Australia) saw an amazing transparent white fish 35 meters long in the sea. It was clear that this fish had surfaced from a great depth. Many researchers believe that the Mariana Trench hides in its unexplored depths the last surviving representatives of the giant prehistoric shark species Carcharodon megalodon. Based on the few surviving remains, scientists have recreated the appearance of the megalodon. This predator lived in the seas 2–2.5 million years ago and was of monstrous size: about 24 meters long, weighing 100 tons, and the width of its mouth, dotted with 10 cm teeth, reached 1.8–2.0 m - megalodon could easily swallow automobile.

Recently, while exploring the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, oceanographers found perfectly preserved megalodon teeth. One of the finds was 24 thousand years old, and the other was even younger - 11 thousand years! So, not all megalodons died out 2 million years ago?

During one of the dives in the area of ​​the Mariana Trench, the German research apparatus "Hyfish" with a crew on board, being at a depth of 7 km, suddenly "refused" to emerge. Trying to understand the reason for this, the hydronauts turned on the infrared camera. What they saw at first seemed to them a collective hallucination: a huge, resembling a prehistoric lizard, a creature sank its teeth into the body of the bathyscaphe, trying to crack it like a nut ... Recovering, the crew activated a device called an "electric gun". Struck by a powerful discharge, the monster unclenched its terrible jaws and disappeared into the darkness of the abyss...

The dive into the abyss of the Mariana Trench of the American unmanned submersible platform has sensationally ended. Equipped with powerful searchlights, highly sensitive sensors and television cameras, it descended into the depths of the ocean using a steel net woven from 20 mm thick cables. After the bathyscaphe reached the bottom, cameras and microphones did not register anything significant for several hours. And then suddenly on the screens of television monitors in the beams of spotlights flashed the silhouettes of strange huge bodies. When the device was hastily raised to the surface, part of its structures turned out to be bent.

And in 2004, the British magazine New Scientist spoke in detail about the mysterious sounds in the depths of the Pacific Ocean detected by underwater sensors. American system tracking SOSUS. It was created in the years cold war» to monitor Soviet submarines. Specialists who studied recordings of signals from highly sensitive hydrophones identified, against the background of noise, which is the “call signs” of various marine life, a much more powerful sound, clearly emitted by some creature living in the ocean.

This mysterious signal, first recorded in 1977, is much more powerful than those infrasounds that large whales use to communicate with each other at a distance of hundreds of kilometers from each other.

Unexplored corners of our planet - mountains, forests, seas and oceans - still hide a huge number of mysterious inhabitants. It is difficult to imagine what creatures lived long before the present, but, fortunately, numerous finds make it possible.

The ocean is the least explored part of the Earth. Unknown animals may be hiding under the water column. One of these animals was the megalodon.

First guesses

It is considered the largest shark known to science at the moment.

Great white shark tooth and fossilized megalodon tooth

The first find to confirm existence was teeth.

True, at first it was believed that these were petrified tongues of snakes or dragons. Only in 1667, N. Stensen from Denmark suggested that these were the teeth of a shark.

The year 1835 became famous for the fact that Lewis Agassiz, a Swiss naturalist, after writing a work on fossil fish, gave the scientific name of an ancient shark - Carcharodon megalodon.

Unfortunately, no complete megalodon skeleton has been found. Like all sharks, it consisted of cartilage, so it has not been preserved. Only fossilized teeth and vertebrae were found.

The age of the remains is 2.8 - 2.5 million years. It turns out that these sharks existed in the early Miocene - late Pliocene.

Unusual finds:

• Teeth. The most common finds of megalodon remains are teeth. Only the white shark, now living, has a similar structure. But the teeth of the ancient shark were much larger - at least 2-3 times, more powerful, stronger and had uniform notches. The shape of the teeth is triangular, or V-shaped. Diagonally, the size reached 18-19 cm. The remains of a giant fish were found all over the world: Europe, Africa, North and South America, Cuba, Jamaica, Japan, India, and even in the Mariana Trench. The largest tooth was found in Peru - 19 cm, and in South Carolina - 18.4 cm.
• Vertebrae.In addition to teeth, researchers around the world have found megalodon vertebrae. In 1926, in Belgium, near Antwerp, a fragment was found consisting of 150 vertebrae, the diameter of which was up to 15.5 cm. In 1983, in Denmark, 20 vertebrae from 10 to 23 cm. In 2006, a vertebral column with the largest vertebrae - up to 23 cm in diameter.

Body dimensions

No full-fledged remains, except for teeth and vertebrae, were found, therefore, to estimate the size of the megalodon, scientists are forced to resort to reconstructions, comparing it with a great white shark.

Comparative sizes: maximum and minimum size of megalodon, great white shark and human

1. Bashford Dean, American Museum of Natural History, made the first attempt in the 1900s. The jaw recreated by him exceeded 3 meters, respectively, the body length of the fossil shark reached approximately 30 meters.
2. J. E. Randall in 1973, conducting research, concluded that megalodon had a body up to 13 meters long.
3. M. D. Gottfried and a group of scientists in 1996 reported that the body length was from 16 to 20 meters, and the weight reached 47 tons.
4. Clifford Jeremy in 2002 checked the previously obtained data by comparing them with new calculations. It turned out that the length of the body was 16.5 meters.
5. Catalina Pimento in 2013, analyzing the teeth found, received new results. The body length was 17.9 meters.

Jaw: structure and bite force

Megalodon jaw at Baltimore National Aquarium, Maryland, USA

In 1989, Japanese scientists described the preserved remains as having an almost complete set of teeth.

Megalodon had very strong teeth, the total number of which reached 276 pieces. They were arranged in 5 rows.

Paleontologists believe that the jaw length of the largest individuals reached 2 meters.

Despite their huge size, the teeth were very thin and had a small cutting edge.

The roots of the teeth were powerful relative to the overall height of the tooth.

Thanks to these teeth, the megalodon was able to open the chest or bite through the vertebrae of large animals without breaking, even if they cut into the bones.

S. Uro with a team of scientists conducted an experiment in 2008, the purpose of which was to determine the bite force of a megalodon.

Based on the results, it reached from 108.5 to 182 kN. These figures are much higher than the bite force of the dunkleosteus - 7.4 kN, the white shark - 18.2 kN. The closest indicators are for Deinosuchus - 103 kN, tyrannosaurus - 156 kN, Pliosaurus Funke - 150 kN.

Skeletal reconstruction

Research by scientists and attempts to reconstruct the megalodon body have allowed the scientific community to determine the skeletal structure.

Reconstructed megalodon skeleton at the Calvert Maritime Museum, Maryland, USA

All indicators are described in comparison with the great white shark: the skull was cartilaginous, but much thicker and more durable; fins - massive and thick for movement and control of a giant body; the number of vertebrae exceeded the number of other specimens.

Based on all the data obtained, Gottfried was able to reconstruct the complete skeleton of the megalodon: it came out 11.5 meters in length.

It turns out that megalodon is the largest of all existing fish. But such a large size of the body gave certain inconveniences to the prehistoric shark, namely:

• Gas exchange;
• Minimum stamina;
• Slow metabolism;
• Insufficiently active lifestyle.

Life and ways of hunting

The remains found indicate that he ate cetaceans - sperm whales, bowhead whales, cetotheres, dolphins, porpoises, sirens, sea turtles.

A large number of the bones of whales found to date have clear marks of deep scratches, as if from large teeth.

Scientists are sure that these are megalodon teeth marks. Moreover, next to such remains, as a rule, were the teeth themselves.

All sharks on the hunt use a complex strategy. But megalodon was an exception in this: due to the size of the body, he could not develop high speed, had a limited stamina.

Most likely, he hunted, using exclusively ambushes, waiting for the approach of prey.

There are versions that he could go to the ram, then killed and ate the victim.

B. Kent believes that, having such huge teeth, the ancient fish tried to break bones in order to damage the vital organs in chest.

Causes of extinction

The megalodon shark became extinct 3 million years ago. There are several reasons.

1. According to scientists, the reason for the disappearance of these large predators is competition with other animals during food shortages.
2. global climate change. Their main food was small cetaceans, which inhabited the warm shallow waters of the shelf seas. Perhaps a huge fish lived around the same place. At the moment of cooling in the Pliocene, glaciers bound the water, forcing the shelf seas to disappear. The water in the oceans became colder, which affected both the megalodons and their prey.
3. The emergence of toothed whales- ancestors of modern killer whales. They had a more developed brain and led a herd life. Due to their huge size, megalodons could not swim maneuverably, therefore, most likely, they were attacked by killer whales.

Megalodon in the 21st century

Some scientists are convinced that he lives to this day. In favor of this fact, they give completely unthinkable arguments that do not withstand any criticism.

First, they say, only 5% of the world's oceans have been explored. Perhaps ancient sharks may be hiding in unexplored parts.

Secondly, there are several pictures that show fragments of the body of a megalodon. However, all this has been refuted, and at the moment, the world scientific community is absolutely sure that this species is extinct.

Megalodon is the largest shark on Earth, in the entire history of its existence. The giant teeth of this shark have been discovered by people since ancient times.

They considered them to be the teeth of the huge, fearsome dragons that previously inhabited the planet. Already in the 17th century, people had a more realistic attitude to legends and legends, and some scientists put forward the version that these huge teeth belonged to a shark that lived in the oceans millions of years ago.

This giant predator was named megalodon. This shark lived (judging by the geological deposits in which teeth were found) presumably 1.5-25 million years ago. The reason for the death of megalodons was the general cooling that occurred on Earth.

Megalodon belongs to the family of cartilaginous fish, so its skeleton cannot be found, because cartilage tissue decomposes faster than bone. Scientists find only individual vertebrae and teeth. And from such meager fragments it is difficult to recreate a realistic picture. People have always been imaginative, therefore, identifying the megalodon with the white shark, they have an approximate image of this sea monster. A model of a megalodon is exhibited in the US state of Maryland at the Annapolis Oceanographic Museum.

The megalodon shark is the forerunner of modern sharks.

What did the fossil shark look like?

In size, this predatory fish was much larger than the white shark. The body length of the megalodon was 30 meters, while it weighed 60 tons.

Some scientists believe that these sharks were more modest in size, they argue that the body length was about 22 meters, and they weighed about 50 tons. But even these dimensions are very impressive.

Scientists calculated these parameters based on the correspondence of the length of the teeth to the length of the body. In this case, the white shark was taken as the sample. Today, the prevailing version is that the length of the fossil predator averaged 15-18 meters. If this predator were large, then it would have difficulty with food. That is, these sharks would have eaten all living things and would have died themselves.

The average length of a megalodon tooth is 15 centimeters, its thickness is 2.5 centimeters, and its width is 10 centimeters. For comparison, the dimensions of a white tooth are as follows: length - 5 centimeters, thickness - 0.6 millimeters, width - 2.5 centimeters. Judging by these sizes, you can imagine how huge this fossil fish was.

What was the lifestyle of the megalodon?

As for the speed at which these sharks swam, scientists do not have exact data. But many are of the opinion that these giants could reach speeds of 70 kilometers per hour. That is, in terms of speed characteristics, megalodons also had no competitors in the oceans.

This shark hunted mainly whales. but managed to survive, because they are better adapted to the cold climate, they can live freely in cold waters. Whales feel comfortable in the oceans of the north and south poles, and this shark is thermophilic, so it could not survive such a cold snap.

Other scientists believe that the death of megalodon is due to the fact that killer whales appeared in the oceans.