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How Megalodon possibly looked like
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 (06-16-2023, 02:28 PM)Spalea Wrote: @Apex Titan You misunderstood me. I'm not saying the megalodon was this completely invincible creature that can never be injured or something. What I was saying is that overall, the megalodon was the greatest apex predator to have ever lived and dominated the ocean and was at the very pinnacle of the food-chain. But that doesn't mean it swam around constantly killing every single creature it encountered. Obviously, I know this is not the case. Just like how modern day apex predators don't constantly go around slaughtering everything they see. There's no point of referencing a Hollywood movie, which almost always sensationalizes the sizes of large predators. Of course the megalodon wasn't 50 meters in length. In reality, the megalodon grew up to 20 meters (65 feet) in length: "A more reliable way of estimating the size of megalodon shows the extinct shark may have been bigger than previously thought, measuring up to 65 feet, nearly the length of two school buses." https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20...161015.htm I know the way I worded my previous post may look like I'm saying the megalodon was this crazy, blood-lusted rogue killing machine that always killed anything and everything it came across. But no, I'm not, let me be more specific and post the reports/studies. New studies confirmed that megalodon was even bigger and badder than previously thought: Megalodon Sat Higher Up The Food Chain Than Any Other Ocean Predator Ever Everything was a catch of the day to the megalodons. The megalodon – aka megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon – was a mighty beast that once roamed the ancient oceans. They were larger than any other predatory sharks at the time, reaching a whopping 16 meters (52 feet). For comparison, the current biggest predatory fish in the ocean are female white sharks, averaging 4.5 meters (15 feet). Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for many marine animals), the megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago. In a new study published in Science Advances, scientists revealed that the megalodon occupied the highest trophic level (the position of an organism in a food web) than any other ocean predator, living or extinct. https://www.iflscience.com/megalodon-tee...hain-64167 What did Megalodon eat? Anything it wanted — including other predators New Princeton research shows that prehistoric megatooth sharks, the biggest sharks that ever lived, were apex predators at the highest level ever measured. A team of Princeton researchers has now discovered clear evidence that Megalodon and some of its ancestors were at the very highest rung of the prehistoric food chain – what scientists call the highest “trophic level.” Indeed, their trophic signature is so high that they must have eaten other predators and predators-of-predators in a complicated food web, say the researchers. https://www.princeton.edu/news/2022/06/2...-predators https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scia...ookieSet=1 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add2674 The extinct shark Otodus megalodon was a transoceanic superpredator: Inferences from 3D modeling We used an exceptionally well-preserved fossil to create the first three-dimensional model of the body of this giant shark and used it to infer its movement and feeding ecology. We estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators. A dietary preference for large prey potentially enabled O. megalodon to minimize competition and provided a constant source of energy to fuel prolonged migrations without further feeding. Together, our results suggest that O. megalodon played an important ecological role as a transoceanic superpredator. Hence, its extinction likely had large impacts on global nutrient transfer and trophic food webs. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm9424 Ancient megalodon was so massive it could've snacked on killer whales, scientists say We're going to need a bigger boat — maybe something like a cruise ship. Scientists recently discovered just how massive an ancient shark might've been. It is freaking staggering. The otodus megalodon — you know, the infamous meg you've likely heard of — was so large it could have snacked on orcas, colloquially known as killer whales. That's according to a new study, published in Science Advances, that made a 3D model of what the shark likely looked like by using an "exceptionally well-preserved fossil." In short, and I'm taking some liberties here, the researchers concluded the megalodon was an absolute unit that was the unquestioned master of the entire ocean. "We estimate that an adult O. megalodon could cruise at faster absolute speeds than any shark species today and fully consume prey the size of modern apex predators," the researchers wrote. Just how big the megalodon was is pretty difficult to comprehend. The shark, which cruised Earth 23 to 2.6 million years ago, likely could've swallowed a large great white in a single bite. Researchers think a large megalodon grew up to 20 meters long. That's a shark nearly the size of an 18-wheeler. It could eat the largest current-day killer whale (around 26 feet) in five quick bites, one of the researchers wrote. The new 3D model was an important step forward in researching the megalodon, which has remained somewhat of a mystery to scientists. Their bodies were largely made of cartilage, which means fossils — except for massive teeth — are rare. But now we have a better picture of just how massive, and impressive, the ancient animals really were. https://sea.mashable.com/life/21190/anci...ntists-say No surprise then that recent research by palaeontologists at Princeton University in the US has shown that megalodon ate whatever it wanted – including other predators. The results of the research, published in Science Advances, indicate this ancient shark was an apex predator with no comparison in all of Earth’s history. “If Megalodon existed in the modern ocean, it would thoroughly change humans’ interaction with the marine environment,” adds senior author Danny Sigman, professor of geological and geophysical sciences at Princeton. Read the full report for more details: https://cosmosmagazine.com/history/megal...-predator/ https://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien...07703.html New research analyzing teeth from this ancient creature has revealed that the megalodon was the most apex of apex predators. By studying the levels of nitrogen isotopes present in cells, scientists can figure out where a creature was in the food chain – because of the way the nitrogen is processed and excreted, nitrogen-15 builds up the higher in the food chain you go. What the enamel on the megalodon (Otodus megalodon) teeth shows is high levels of nitrogen-15 and a place at the very top of that food chain. In fact, the food chain would have had to be several levels higher than it is today to accommodate the megalodon, which lived from around 23 million years ago to around 3.6 million years ago. "We're used to thinking of the largest species – blue whales, whale sharks, even elephants and diplodocuses – as filter feeders or herbivores, not predators," says biogeochemist Emma Kast, from the University of Cambridge in the UK. "But megalodon and the other megatooth sharks were genuinely enormous carnivores that ate other predators, and meg went extinct only a few million years ago." https://www.sciencealert.com/megalodons-...hest-level Now, maybe I posted too much of the same reports..... but you get the picture. All in all, the most recent studies confirm that megalodon was indeed the greatest and most formidable apex predator to have ever lived. Due to its sheer colossal size, enormous power and predatory abilties etc, it was the apex predator of apex predators and ruled the ocean. I don't see how this fact can be disputed now. Seriously, what other creature could have possibly challenged a gigantic 52-65 ft predatory shark? The megalodon's jaws and teeth were perfectly designed to easily chomp and slice right through even the thickest blubber of the largest whales. Making even the Livyatan Melvillei (which was smaller than Megalodon) highly susceptible to massive fatal damage by the giant sharks jaws. |
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