The most dangerous creature ever in the ocean – the megalodon.
I believe that everyone has a general understanding of this creature from the movie "Megalodon". Today we will take you to learn more about this prehistoric giant shark. The megalodon body is very strong, streamlined, up to thirty meters long, weighs more than ninety tons, and the megalodon's teeth are very sharp and serrated like a steak knife. There are transport belts between the teeth that can continue to grow teeth, and new teeth will be replaced before they fall out or become dull. Megalodon is currently known to have the largest bite force, with an average bite force of 28 tons and a maximum bite force of 36 tons, its tooth tearing force far exceeds that of Tyrannosaurus rex, megalodon can hunt any creature in the sea, and most like to prey on cetaceans. But what it looked like was never seen. It is said that its existence was seen during World War II, could it really be that this prehistoric creature really existed? What is the mystery of the life and death of megalodon?
Sharks are cartilaginous fish, and it was difficult to leave fossils in general bone parts, until 2013, only some fossilized triangular teeth as large as palms and a few fossilized vertebrae were found. Adult megalodon teeth are generally 10-16 cm long and more than 18 cm long, several times the size of Great White Shark teeth. Although the complete upper and lower jaw fossils have not been found, scientists have calculated that this shark is about 20 meters in size and proportion according to the size of its teeth, weighs about 90 tons, and has an open mouth diameter of 2.8~3 meters.
Megalodon lived about 28 million to 1.5 million years ago, megalodon is the largest shark ever recorded, a ferocious predator in the prehistoric ocean, its bite force is 5 times that of great white sharks, according to whale fossils found everywhere with scars caused by megalodon attacks, this shark was once widely distributed. In 2010, British paleontologists led researchers to discover potential evidence of megalodon nursery off the coast of Panama. At the 10-million-year-old site, megalodons left some juvenile teeth, the only fossil record that sharks were able to leave because their bones were formed from cartilage, suggesting that juvenile megalodons may have lived there. But it's unclear whether the finding is widespread.
Theoretically, because megalodons feed mainly on cetaceans, the cold water at the poles is not suitable for megalodon survival, and whales can thus escape megalodon's predation, making megalodons lack of food and become extinct. About 1.5 million years ago, the Earth's water cycle changed, upwelling decreased, a large number of cetaceans died due to food shortages, diverse whale species gradually declined, megalodons could not find enough food and gradually became extinct. At that time, humans had evolved on Earth, and human ancestors were already in the upright stage, but unfortunately our ancestors failed to invent a means of transportation that could go to the sea, so in the 500,000 years that humans and megalodons lived together, our ancestors failed to witness the terrifying king of megalodons.
But a few scientists believe that megalodon is still not extinct and still alive today. Many people have reported that megalodons have been found, and after examination, they are basking sharks, whale sharks and other large sharks that have been mistaken for megalodons.