/

Megalodon Shark Facts | Megalodon Shark Diet & Habitat

Extend your knowledge towards understanding the the real Megalodon shark facts that had gone extinct. The word megalodon refers to the ‘big tooth’. The megalodon shark became extinct some 28 – 1.5 million years ago in the period of Cenozoic Epoch. Little facts are known about the taxonomy of these extinct species. Nonetheless, scientists regard megalodon sharks as one of the most powerful predators in the history of vertebrates. According to the fossil’s evidence these sharks might be as long as 15.9 – 20.3 meters (52 – 61 feet). They had been known to have cosmopolitan distribution around the globe.

Amazing Megalodon Shark Facts

Of all the extant species, the great white sharks are considered to be the closest relative to C. megalodon. It follows that scientists could not found enough fossils for megalodon to describe precisely the anatomy of these extinct species and therefore they had to rely on the great white sharks size and anatomy to assess.

The megalodon shark was thought to be greater than the whale shark.

According to Prof. Bashford Dean the megalodon sharks could be as long as 30 meters (98 feet). However, the latest advancement in discoveries tells the different story. This length is now regarded as inaccurate.

The megalodon shark was by far the biggest prehistoric shark that has ever existed on the planet earth.

The teeth of these marine creatures were thought to be 7 inches long.

The megalodon shark’s teeth have been discovered from different places due to the fact that sharks continuously shed their teeth over the period of time.

The great white sharks have a bite force of about 1.8 tons while the megalodon sharks had the bite force of 10.8 – 18.2 tons which means that they could easily crush the skull of some other prehistoric whales.

According to paleontologists, the length of the megalodon sharks were measured at 40 – 100 feet, with more consensuses is on the size of 55 – 60 feet.

The weight of these species was known to be 50 – 100 tons.

These megalodon sharks were primarily known to feed on prehistoric sharks including giant turtles, dolphins, squids, fish, and other similar large species.

Scientists aren’t confident enough to disclose facts about the probable reasons for the extinction of megalodon sharks. However, some of the arguments that were put forward by paleontologists were that these species might have suffered from global cooling that made them disappeared altogether; or that the number of whales (which comprises the bulk of their diet) had gone extinct.

Some of the most common nesting sites of megalodon sharks were Gatun Formation of Panama, Bone Valley Formation of Florida, and Calvert Formation of Maryland. They were deemed to reside in warm waters since there were abundant of foods available in these waters.

The megalodon sharks were known to give birth to live young.

The length of the pups was measured at 2 – 4 meters (7 – 13 feet).

Read More: Megalodon Shark Facts for Kids

Where Did Megalodon Sharks Live

According to the discovered evidences the megalodon sharks were known to migrate great distances possibly in search of their prey. This fact came to the fore when the teeth of these species were found everywhere around the major waters of the world. They had existed in moderate and subtropical latitudes. They were thought to cover almost all the waters including sandy littorals, coastal upwelling, shallow waters, and offshore deep waters.

Megalodon Shark Facts What Did Megalodon Sharks Eat

These gigantic sharks were predominantly regarded as opportunistic feeders. They prim,arily preyed on various marine species such as whales, dolphins, squid, fish, bowhead whales, porpoises, giant turtles, pinnipeds, sperm whales, squalodontids, cetotherrids, and rorquals.

Megalodon Shark Facts | Video

16 Comments

  1. Excuse me but in your video it says that they have been on earth for about 15 million years but earth has only been around for 2015 years

    • The Earth has not been around for 2015 Years, it is about 4.54 billion years old. The current year 2015 does not mean 2015 years have been passed since birth of Earth. You can search on the internet about “Gregorian Calendar”, and you will come to know the first year of the current calander year 2015 was set to be the birth year of Jesus Christ.

  2. Don’t bring religion in to this… You don’t know as a fact how old the Earth is, you weren’t there. Nor was any one else, other than a possible supreme being (I do believe in God, but He is not directly relevant to this particular conversation).

  3. Animals are a sophisticated group that us as humans will never really understand. It is not right to offend these beauteous creatures because they are smarter and we will never know much about them.

Express yourself about the animals

Latest from Extinct

Follow Us

");pageTracker._trackPageview();