Megalodon Essay

445 Words2 Pages
Megalodon was the largest prehistoric shark that has ever lived! Thousands of teeth have been found worldwide, however only few bones. Over the past century, palaeontologists have made estimates ranging from 40 to 100 feet, but now they’ve deducted that a fully-grown adult would grow from 55 to 60 feet long and weighed about 100 tons. However, there is also evidence that few may have grown up to 100 feet on a rare occasion. The Megalodon also has a famous nickname as “Big Tooth”, and it had definitely earned it. The teeth of this astounding shark could grow up to 9 – 10 foot long! Megalodon’s as sharks, shed their tens of thousands times in a lifetime, so Megalodon teeth have been found all over the world, from ancient to modern times. It was only in the late 17th century that early scientists discovered that the giant teeth were actually shark teeth. Megalodon had the most powerful bite force of any creature that has ever lived! In 2008, The US and Australian palaeontologists both used the latest technology to see how powerful the bite of this magnificent shark was. A modern Great White Shark has about 1.8 tons of bite force. This led them to finding out that the Megalodon had a bite between 10.8 and 18.2 tons! This would mean they could easily crush a prehistoric whale’s skull as easily as we would eat through a banana! Even though prehistoric whales were much bigger than the Megalodon, they were their main food source. Megalodon also ate dolphins, fish, squids and even giant turtles! As hard as their protective shells were, they didn’t stand a chance against the incredible Megalodon bite force. 8. Megalodon's closest living relative is the Great White Shark. Megalodon has a scientific name as Carcharadon megalodon and the Great white Shark has a scientific name as Carcharodon carcharias, meaning it belongs to the same genus “Carcharodon” as Megalodon.

More about Megalodon Essay

Open Document