MEGALADON SHARK

Measuring up to 60 feet in length, Carcharocles Megalodon is an extinct genus of large predatory shark that raged through the oceans during the Miocene Epoch, 23-3.6 million years ago. Using extrapolation from a vertebral centra, and dimensions based on the great white shark, calculated estimates suggest that a Megalodon measuring 52 feet in length would have weighed upwards of 48 tons, or 88,000 pounds. This immense shark is considered to be the most powerful predator to have ever existed. The name Megalodon translates in Greek as ‘Big Tooth’, an allusion to the exceedingly large fossil teeth that have been discovered on every continent, with the exception of Antarctica. Adult Megalodon teeth grew to be between 4-7 inches in length and their jaws held nearly 300 of these massive teeth at a time. Like modern sharks, these teeth were regularly swapped out for a regrowth of new, sharper teeth. It is estimated that the Megalodon would have eaten no less than 2,500 pounds of meat per day and would have lived to be over 100 years old. Megalodons thrived in warmer coastal waters but were mostly cosmopolitan in their existence, swimming the world’s oceans in search of food and breeding grounds. The Megalodon met its inevitable extinction due to a cascading effect of global cooling and food chain collapse. During this time, the Earth’s falling temperatures and falling waters created closures between seas and continents which, in turn, disrupted essential food supplies for this apex predator. Along with the Baleen whale’s disappearance, and the insurgence of smaller predatory animals such as Great White Shark’s and Orca’s, Megalodon sharks were unable to find enough food in order to continue to survive.