Megalodon

The megalodon was the largest shark to ever live.

With a size that could reach in excess of 50 feet and estimates for its weight stretching beyond 100,000 pounds, the megalodon was significantly larger than any other shark species on record. Learn about the largest ocean animals to have ever lived here.

Incredible Megalodon Facts! 

• In January 2019 video of a great white shark nicknamed “Deep Blue” made world news thanks to the shark’s incredible size. It was estimated “Deep Blue” was one of the largest great white sharks ever recorded, weighing in at 2.5 tons. As you’ll read below, estimates for megalodon size reach 20 to even 50 times the size of today’s largest great white sharks! 

• The highest bite force of living shark species today has been measured at 18,216 newtons. A recent 3-D computer analysis placed the megalodon’s bite force at up to 182,201 newtons! That’s more than five times the bite force estimates for a Tyrannosaurus Rex! 

• While megalodons were incredible apex predators, the latest fossils on record date back no later than 2.6 million years ago. We’ve compiled a full list of scientific theories on why the megalodon may have gone extinct below! 

Want the most mind-blowing megalodon facts? Check out ’13 Mind-Blowing Megalodon Facts’ to get the most incredible facts about this prehistoric giant!

Scientific Name 

The scientific name of the megalodon shark is Otodus megalodon. 

With megalodon teeth reaching beyond 6 inches in length, discoveries of megalodon teeth in the middle ages were often thought to be dragons or other mythical creatures.

The first scientific name for megalodon was Carcharodon megalodon. Megalodon was placed in the genus Carcharodon – a genus that includes today’s great white shark – due to similarities in its teeth structure. 

However, the current scientific consensus places megalodon in the family Otodontidae. There continues to be debate surrounding megalodon’s exact classification, so the genus of the species could change in the future barring further research and fossil discoveries. 

Evolution and Origins

The oldest fossils of the megalodon shark, also referred to as Otodus megalodon (previously known as Carcharodon or Carcharocles megalodon), is dated to 20 million years ago and they continued to exist for the next 13 million years, ruling the oceans until they went extinct about 3.6 million years ago.

Megalodon had a worldwide distribution and its fossils have been found in numerous locations around the globe, including Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Australia. The shark was usually found in areas with subtropical to temperate climates.

Furthermore, the megalodon shark’s predecessors include Otodus obliquus, which had smooth teeth with thick roots and two mini-teeth, and Carcharocles auriculatus, which had serrated teeth with two mini-teeth.

Appearance and Behavior 

The Megalodon was a massive species of shark. Since the first discoveries of its teeth, scientific debate has raged around the megalodon’s size (a summary of scientific findings can be found below). Like most large fish, it’s believed megalodon exhibited dimorphism where females grew significantly larger than males. 

As sharks have skeletons made of cartilage, most of what we know about megalodon today is based on fossilized teeth that have been found across the world.

While most models and artistic renditions of the megalodon have the species looking very close in appearance to a much larger great white shark, there is some debate that the shape of the species could have more closely resembled other shark species, such as a whale shark (which like the megalodon reaches 50 feet in length).

Size 

Megalodon’s size has been the subject of significant research, but most studies place its maximum length at around 50 feet (15 to 16 meters). With scientists relying largely on tooth samples that can reach more than 6” in length, various methods have been used to estimate the length and body mass of this enormous shark. 

Below, we’ve summarized the key finding of recent scientific research into how large megalodon may have reached:

• A 1996 paper from Gottfried, et al. placed the maximum length of megalodon at an astounding 20 meters (67 feet). In addition, the paper placed a conservative body mass maximum of 47,960 kg (105,733 lbs). The paper also established a maximum body mass of 103,197 kg (227,510 lbs). For perspective, the maximum size of today’s great white sharks is roughly 5,000 lbs!  

• A 2019 study from Kenshu Shimada placed the maximum size of megalodon at between 14.2 and 15.3 meters (50 feet).

• In September 2020 a team of researchers from Swansea and the University of Bristol used 2D reconstruction to estimate the megalodon’s size. Their research placed the megalodon’s maximum size at 16 meters (52 feet) with a head that reached 4.65 meters (15 feet) in length! 

While female megalodons reached tremendous sizes, males were significantly smaller. Males had a maximum length about 20% shorter than females and may have weighed about half as much on average. 

Tooth Size

Megalodon teeth have been discovered on every continent except for Antarctica. The teeth are notable for their size, with the largest samples ever discovered exceeding 7 inches in length! For perspective, larger great white shark teeth range in size from 1.5 to 2.5 inches. Megalodon teeth have been called the “ultimate cutting tools” and possessed serrated edges converging to a pointed end. 

Thanks to the discovery of several nearly complete sets of megalodon teeth, scientists have been able to reconstruct the appearance of the megalodon’s jaws and the position of its replacement teeth (see picture below).

Today, there are several regions where megalodon teeth can be found in relative abundance. For example, cliff faces in Western Australia are believed to contain “thousands” of megalodon teeth. In the United States, they’ve been frequently spotted in areas like off the coast of Wilmington, North Carolina. 

Habitat and Distribution

Like great white sharks today, megalodon was found across the world in non-polar waters, however, their range did expand over time. 

The earliest megalodon discoveries in the Early Miocene (about 23 million years ago) are in more concentrated areas along the Baja coast, the Caribbean, the Mediterranean Sea, and Australia. By the Late Miocene (roughly 6 million years ago), the species distribution had expanded across North and South America and was more commonly found in locations like South Africa. 

In the Early Miocene, North and South America weren’t connected, which allowed travel between the east and west coasts of the continent. In addition, the Mediterranean opened up to a vast sea that included much of today’s middle east. These shallow seas presented excellent hunting opportunities for the species. 

Diet 

The Megalodon was an “apex predator” that fed on baleen whales, toothed whales, sea turtles, and even other sharks. Due to its incredibly large size, the megalodon needed to consume a voracious amount of food. It’s estimated that to feed its appetite, the shark would need to consume roughly 2500 pounds of food per day. 

(For reference, that works out to a diet requiring eating the mass of 6.5 bottlenose dolphins per day!) 

Evidence from fossils shows megalodon was at the top of the food chain, and bite marks attributed to the shark can be found across large whale species such as the sperm whale, which can reach up to 130,000 pounds. However, fossil records indicate megalodon species may have hunted different prey depending on their location, often targeting prey such as dwarf whales and medium-size baleen whales. 

Predators and Threats 

Fossil records indicate the megalodon is a shark without a peer. A study published in Historical Biology in October 2020 concluded their gigantism was “off the scale” and contemporary sharks in their gamily – Lamniformes – reached no more than 23 feet in length. That means that the megalodon’s size (measured by weight) may have been 10 to 30 times larger than its closest relatives. 

Evidence in the fossil record shows that sharks during the time megalodon lived may have avoided the species, preferring colder waters where megalodon didn’t hunt and compete for resources. Yet, even with its incredible size and predatory adaptation, megalodon faced competition.

For example, a toothed whale that lived at the same time as megalodon – Livyatan – hunted in much the same way as today’s killer whales. However, the species was much larger, with dagger-like teeth that could reach more than a foot in length. 

Was Megalodon the Largest Predator Ever?

The list of largest predators ever is focused on the water. Modern sperm whales can reach more than 75 feet in length and weigh more than 90,000 pounds. Today, sperm whales hunt prey such as squid, but their ancestor – Livyatan – may have battled megalodons directly.

Another predator that was close in size to megalodon was Mosasaurus. We recently pitted megalodon vs. Mosasarus against one another in a hypothetical battle, and both sea giants had advantages that made this a close fight!

Extinction 

A number of theories have been proposed for megalodon’s extinction ranging from climate change to a nearby supernova, to the extinction of its primary prey. We’ll examine the theories of megalodon extinction individually.

Climate change

Megalodon’s range was restricted to more temperate waters. For example, in the northern hemisphere megalodon fossils haven’t been discovered further north than Denmark. The expansion of glaciers at the Earth’s poles – and the resulting loss of shallow, temperate seas — could have led to a reduction in habitats suitable to the megalodon and lessened its population.

Supernova 

A study published in the journal Astrobiology in 2018 proposed that a supernova 150 light years from earth killed off more than 1/3 of the world’s large marine animals 2.6 million years ago – and megalodon was one of its victims. 

Why would this event have been so harmful to megalodon? The authors of the study estimated a wave of radioactive ‘muons’ would have hit the earth and lasted for a generation, leading to a risk of cancer that increased in larger animals. With estimates of megalodon’s size reaching 100,000 pounds and beyond, it would have been one of the largest animals on earth at the time. 

A great white shark extinction?

Finally, an analysis in PeerJ that was published in 2019 proposes that the megalodon’s extinction may have been caused by a much smaller shark: the great white! 

The authors of the analysis point to evidence that the megalodon’s extinction may have been earlier than previously believed, about a million years before the supernova that hit the earth and wiped out many large marine animals.

They propose that megalodon populations were already on the decline from climate change and the loss of prey like smaller whales. Adding to the species’ woes, at this time the great white shark evolved and began competing with younger megalodons for prey.