Article Author:
Associated Press
Maddy Bulakhoff
NEW YORK (AP) — Today's sharks have nothing on ancient sharks. A giant shark that roamed the oceans millions of years ago could have devoured a creature the size of a killer whale in just five bites, new research suggests. .
In a study published Wednesday, researchers used fossil evidence to create his 3D model of the megalodon. This is one of the biggest predatory fish ever and he found clues about its life.
A study in Science Advances found that megalodon was about 16 meters from nose to tail, larger than a school bus. This is about two to three times the size of a modern great white shark. Megalodon's gaping jaws allowed it to eat other large creatures. With their huge stomachs full, researchers suggest they can roam the ocean for months at a time.
Megalodons were also good swimmers. Its average cruising speed was faster than that of modern sharks, they calculated, and could easily navigate multiple oceans.
"It would be a superpredator ruling the ecosystem," said co-author John Hutchinson, who studies the evolution of animal movement at the Royal Veterinary College. "There's really nothing quite like it."
The researcher said the time it took for scientists to get a sharp image of the megalodon was clear, according to Catalina Pimiento, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich and Swansea University in Wales. was difficult.
Skeletons are made of soft cartilage that doesn't fossilize well, Pimiento said. I used the one with very little .
Researchers also brought in a jaw's worth of megalodon teeth about the size of a human fist, Hutchinson said. A scan of a modern great white shark helped flesh out the rest.
Based on their digital work, the researchers calculated that the megalodon weighed about 70 tons, or the weight of 10 elephants.
Even other high-level predators could have been the meat of a megalodon's lunch, which could open its jaws to nearly 6 feet (2 meters) wide, Pimiento said. said.
Megalodon lived an estimated 23 to 2.6 million years ago.
Because megalodon fossils are rare, models of this kind require a "leap of the imagination," said Michigan State University paleontologist Michael Gottfried. He was not involved in this research. But he said the results of the study were reasonable, based on what is known about giant sharks.
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