Megalodon lived throughout most of the ancient world's
oceans, from 17 to 2 million years. He was approximately 60 feet long with a
body mass of about 77 tonnes. In comparison a mature Great White Shark can grow
up to 21 ft in length and just over 3 tonnes in weight. The difference in size can be seen below:
This lovely artefact, a tooth of the giant sea predator, is part of a large and diverse prehistory section we will be showing off this year. You can see some of the collection here:
The Great White Shark tooth next to it looks rather piddly by comparison... Megalodon had an impressive set of gnashers: 46 front row teeth (24 in the upper jaw and 22 in the lower). Most sharks have at least six rows of teeth, so it is thought a Megalodon had about 276 teeth at any given time.
Evidence of these massive creatures is fairly scarce, leaving behind only their
fossil teeth and (rarely) vertebrae in ancient marine sediments. Most of its
body was made of cartilage which did not preserve well in ocean sediments. Megalodon evolved to feed on the giant whales which appeared as the oceans
cooled during the Miocene and Pliocene eras. It is estimated that Megalodon ate
about 2,500 pounds of food every day, including whales and other large fish.
Megalodon is a “lamnoid” shark related to modern makos, porbeagles, great whites, and many extinct species. Scientists debate if Megalodon is directly related to the great white shark or if it was an evolutionary “dead-end”. Its extinction came around 2 million years ago. It is believed that during the rapid climate change of the Ice Age, there was a dramatic reduction in the number of large whales that Megalodon fed upon. This, along with competition from other predators (sharks) eventually led to its demise. Its story is one of many, from all periods of our history, that you can hear about through the museum's collection of interactive artefacts.
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