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Megalodon: A giant transoceanic predator

  • Posted By
    10Pointer
  • Categories
    Science & Technology
  • Published
    19th Aug, 2022

Context

Using fossil evidence to create a three-dimensional model, researchers have found new evidence about the life of one of the biggest predatory animals of all time — the Megalodon.


About Megalodon 

  • According to the study, the Megalodon was bigger than a school bus at around 50 feet from nose to tail. 
  • In comparison, the great white sharks of the present can grow to a maximum length of around 15 feet. 
  • Using their digital model, the researchers have suggested that the giant transoceanic predator would have weighed around 70 tonnes — or as much as 10 elephants.
  • Megalodons roamed the oceans an estimated 23 million to 2.6 million years ago.
  • Using a previously established relationship between speed and body mass, researchers calculated that the Megalodon had an average cruising speed faster than sharks today. 
  • The Megalodon had the ability to migrate across multiple oceans.

About 3D modeling research

  • The technique was used as the Megalodon’s skeleton is made of soft cartilage that doesn’t fossilize well. 
  • Using fossils that were available, including mainly teeth and a rare collection of vertebrae that has been with a Belgium museum since the 1860s, computer modelling was used to reconstruct the entire body of the extinct and largest known macropredatory shark.
  • The model was completed by adding ‘flesh’ around the skeleton using a full-body scan of C carcharias (great white shark).

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