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When did megalodons exist?
These big predatory sharks had been prowling the ocean between 20 million years and three.6 million years in the past. Palaeontologists can hint the evolutionary historical past of megalodons again at the least 100 million years.
Are megalodons associated to nice white sharks?|
No. Beforehand, megalodons had been named Carcharodon megalodon, which positioned them in the identical genus as nice white sharks. Palaeontologists later determined they weren’t so carefully associated and shifted them to a special group, renaming them Otodus megalodon.
What did they appear like?
Megalodons are sometimes depicted as huge nice white sharks, however in reality they appeared quite totally different. They possible had a shorter nostril than nice whites, a flatter jaw and really lengthy pectoral fins that helped help their further weight within the water.
How huge had been they in comparison with animals we’re accustomed to in the present day?
No full fossilised megalodon skeleton has ever been discovered, and so measurement estimates are based mostly on their tooth, which had been as much as 18cm (7in) lengthy. Specialists typically agree that these giants might develop to between 15 and 18m (50-60ft) lengthy, which is corresponding to whale sharks, and roughly thrice the scale of the nice white sharks of in the present day.
What did megalodons eat?
Their sharp, serrated tooth present that megalodons had been meat eaters. They had been high predators that hunted dolphins and fishes, together with different sharks. Fossilised whale bones have been discovered with lower marks of megalodon tooth, and suggestions of damaged tooth lodged in them, exhibiting that the large sharks had been whale hunters too. Their huge jaws had been as much as 3.4m (11ft) huge and so they had one of the crucial highly effective bites of any predator.
The place did they stay?
Megalodons lived throughout the ocean in tropical and subtropical waters. A latest examine urged they grew to the most important sizes in cooler waters.
May a megalodon actually nonetheless be alive someplace?
Sorry Meg followers. It’s extraordinarily unlikely that such giant, energetic predators nonetheless exist within the ocean and haven’t been seen.
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