The megalodon

The megalodon shark was one of the fiercest and largest predators to ever swim in the ocean. Capable of reaching lengths twice the size of Tyrannosaurus Rex and carrying a bite force that could crush an automobile, the meg, or Carcharocles megalodon, was the ruler of the prehistoric seas. And yet, despite being at the top of the food chain with no known predators, the shark went extinct around 2.6 million years ago. It’s a mystery we’ve yet to solve. There are countless theories, but nobody has been able to explain for sure why, right before the dawn of humanity, one of the ocean’s deadliest predators disappeared.

The megalodon is the largest shark ever documented, though exactly how massive the animal was varies based on the source. The more modest estimates say that the shark grew up to 60 feet, which is roughly the size of a standard bowling alley lane.

But other sources say it was far larger and posit that the megalodon could have reached more than 80 feet, making it the length of three of London’s famous double-decker buses.

Either way, they dwarfed the sharks in our oceans today. According to shark expert  Peter Klimley, if a modern great white shark swam up beside a megalodon, it would just barely match the length of the megalodon’s penis.

The megalodon’s enormous weight matched its size. The adults reportedly could weigh anywhere from 66,000 pounds to more than 143,000 pounds.

The very name “megalodon” literally means “big tooth.” The largest tooth fossil recovered clocked in at a whopping 6.9 inches, three times as large as the average great white’s tooth. Some reports cite a tooth measuring more than 7 inches.

Like the great white, the megalodon’s teeth were triangular, symmetrical, and serrated, which made them perfect for tearing through the flesh of their prey. According to researchers, sharks a set of teeth every one to two weeks and produce somewhere between 20,000 and 40,000 teeth in a lifetime.

The megalodon’s huge teeth sat nestled inside an even more enormous jaw. Their jaws’ bite diameter was around nine feet tall by 11 feet wide, large enough to swallow two human adults standing side-by-side in a single gulp.

Those jaws were some of the mightiest that ever terrorized the earth. The average human’s bite force is around 1,317 newtons. The megalodon’s bite force clocked in somewhere between 108,514 and 182,201 newtons, giving them a bite powerful enough to crush a car.

During its reign, it is believed that the megalodon preyed through nearly every corner of the early oceans as their teeth have been found on every continent except Antarctica.

The shark preferred warmer waters and tended to stick to shallower and temperate seas, hunting in those waters which covered much of the planet.

But because the megalodon was so enormous animal, the shark had to eat a ton of food a day literally. They preyed on large marine mammals such as whales, snacking on baleen whales or even humpbacks. But when the larger meals were scarce, the megalodon would settle for smaller animals like dolphins, seals and even smaller sharks.