The megalodonWas So Huge It Could Have Devoured An Orca In Just a Few Bites

Huge sharks previously ruled the world's oceans millions of years ago, including the dreaded megalodon (Otodus megalodon). Despite its infamously terrifying reputation, the predator left virtually little evidence of its presence.

We now have the first 3D model of the extinct fish thanks to recent study on an extraordinarily well-preserved fossil, which suggests that it may have cruised at speeds quicker than any shark in the ocean at the time.

Scientists have discovered that it was so big that it could consume full prey the size of today's top predators in just five bites, including the enormous, 8-meter orcas that scare our most feared sharks today, the great white shark.

In actuality, a white shark might have been easily gobbled whole by megalodon.

According to these findings, megalodon was the most fierce creature in prehistory. Furthermore, they could help us understand the function it played in the ocean ecosystems it dominated.

Researchers lead by paleobiologist Jack Cooper of Swansea University in the UK state in their publication that "Together, our results suggest that O. megalodon served a crucial ecological function as a transoceanic superpredator."

Therefore, its extinction probably had a significant effect on the global movement of nutrients and trophic food webs.

It's been a challenge to piece together megalodon from the fossil record. It first arose around 23 million years ago and died out about 3.6 million years ago for unknown reasons.

Based solely on the pieces of it strong enough to withstand the test of time—mostly teeth up to the size of a human hand—we only have knowledge of it and can only speculate on its enormous size.

Sharks have other features besides their teeth that can fossilize, though. Under the correct circumstances, the denser components of its cartilaginous skeleton, in especially its vertebrae, can also be retained. Amazingly, a major portion of the megalodon spine was found to be mostly entire and very well preserved in the 1860s.

Because of their hard nature, which enables them to remain well preserved, shark teeth are a common fossil, according to Cooper.

"They rarely become fossilized, though, because their bones are constructed of cartilage. As a result, the megalodon vertebral column discovered at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences is an original fossil."

Sharks may now be found in a wide range of sizes and shapes. Despite the fact that the two species do not share the same shark family, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias), are regarded to be quite similar to megalodon.

The truth is, we're not exactly sure what Megalodon looked like. But Cooper and his team have created what they think is the most accurate megalodon model to date utilizing this spinal column as a foundation.

They began by measuring and scanning each and every vertebra in the column. The whole megalodon spine was rebuilt using these scans as the foundation.

Then, a mouthful of teeth from a scan of megalodon teeth in the US were added. The body around the recreated spine and jaw was then filled in using a 3D image of a white shark from South Africa.

According to evolutionary biomechanist John Hutchinson of the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, "weight is one of the most significant features of any species."

We can estimate the body mass of extinct creatures using cutting-edge 3D digital modeling techniques, and then demonstrate the correlation between mass and other biological characteristics like speed and energy expenditure.

Megalodon was well-traveled, as evidenced by the discovery of its bones on every continent save Antarctica, showing that the shark once truly ruled the world's oceans. The study by the researchers demonstrates how that might have been the case.

The study discovered that Megalodon had a cruising speed of nearly 5 kilometers (3.1) per hour, as opposed to white sharks' 3 kilometers per hour. The Belgian megalodon, whose spine used as the model's spine, was possibly around 16 meters (52.5 feet) long, however additional vertebrae indicate it may have reached a maximum length of 20 meters.

According to the team's model, the Belgian megalodon had a stomach capacity of about 9.6 cubic meters and a mouth that could open 1.8 meters. These measurements led the team to conclude that megalodon could finish off a prey animal that was 8 meters long, or the size of an adult orca, in just five bites.

Megalodon could swim the oceans of Earth for two months on the caloric load of such a meal. Similar to white sharks, who, if they receive a big enough meal, can go a month or two without eating.

This suggests that the megalodon's extinction from Earth's oceans may have had a more profound impact on the ecosystem of the deep sea than previously thought.

According to paleobiologist Catalina Pimiento of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, "These findings imply that this huge shark was a trans-oceanic super-apex predator."

Large cetaceans were likely relieved of a significant predatory pressure and the global transit of nutrients were likely affected by the loss of this renowned gigantic shark.

Science Advances has published the research.