Megalodon not as big as we once thought!

[GuateGojira]

(08-19-2020, 11:29 AM)BorneanTiger Wrote: Do you know that even great white sharks have a social structure, and kill (juvenile) humpback whales? https://www.naturalhistorymag.com/htmlsi...ature.html, https://web.archive.org/web/201305150612...le-killers

Because sharks like the great white can be social, who can be sure that Megalodon couldn't form social structures that would have given orcas a headache, like how great whites can give smaller dolphins a headache?




John Hargrove with an orca, credit: Palgrave Macmillan Trade

*This image is copyright of its original author

   

Whatever the true size of Megalodon, no orca has jaws this big, so imagine a pod of orcas coming across of group of large sharks with such monstrous jaws (credit: the National Geographic)!

*This image is copyright of its original author

   

Livyatan melvillei for comparison, credit: Levi2207

*This image is copyright of its original author

   

First: If the white shark had a social structure is complete irrelevant as the Carcharocles (Otodus) megalodon was not a white shark, was not even close! It is time to change this wrong idea that "megalodon" was just a big white shark. They are closer to other shark species and more modern reconstructions are changing this incorrect idea.

Second: That picture of the orca do not represent the biggest skull reported, which may surpass the 1 meter of length. However you are comparing animals that do not lived int he same time and with the same size. In fact, it is important to know that the "orcas" that lived in that time were much smaller Orcinus citoniensis, about the size of modern false killer whales (skull of around 60 cm), so no orcas of 9 meters in those days.

Third: This is a much better comparison of the skull of Livyatan and C. (O.) megalodon:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Check the size of the skull of the cetacean:

*This image is copyright of its original author

The angle of the pictures is very deceptive, we must take care of what we use.


The idea that the "megalodon" was a giant white shark that hunted huge sperm whales (that do not even existed in those days, by the way) and that fought with pack of large orcas is a MYTH created long time ago and draged by "fans" in the web. The true is that must of the whales in that time were very small, at about 6 meters in length, that most of the C. (o.) megalodon were about 10 meters in length (from tip of snouth to tip of the tail fin) and where NOT giant white sharks, also were not very fast swimers. And finally the orcas that lived in those days were small of about the same of the modern false killer whale and with simillar diets. The Livyatan melvillei was a true competitor of the giant shark, but competitor do not mean that they run against each other at every moment, that is also a childlist idea of the "fans" at the web. Reply