Otodus Megalodon: The extinct shark that could devour a killer in a few bites

Most of us are curious about the life underwater, as it still continues to remain quite a thrilling mystery. No one can really say for sure what really goes on below the ocean, can they? This ecosystem, full of gigantic animals such as whales, sharks as well as tiny organisms like starfish and different varieties of corals is as exotic as it can get.  

Recently, new research published in the journal Science Advances, has revealed that an ancient shark called Otodus Megalodon, perhaps the largest to have ever lived, had the capacity to devour a creature the size of a killer whale such as Orca, in just a few bites. Quite interesting, isn’t it? Well, let us know all about it. 

For those unaware, Otodus Megalodon, commonly known as Megalodon, is now extinct and lived under water millions (23 to 2.6) of years ago. Regarded as one of the largest predatory fish of all time, Megalodon’s available fossils (from a rare collection of vertebrae reserved at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences since the 1860s) were recently used by international scientists in association with University of Zurich to create a life-like 3D computer model in order to study and understand its biological traits better and what made it such a superb predator. Interestingly, the last known Megalodon (46 years old at the time of death) died 18 million years ago in the Miocene oceans of Belgium. 

Megalodon was around 50 feet in length, almost two to three times the size of today’s great white shark. The name means ‘big tooth’ and was perhaps derived from its gaping jaw (can open up to 6 feet wide) having teeth the size of a human fist, allowing it to be such a successful predator. Interestingly, once Megalodon fed on big creatures such as Orcas, it could go for months without eating and just roaming the oceans tracking its next potential preys. It required 98000 kilo calories of food per day to fill its 10000 litres of stomach volume.  

What further made Megalodon such a super-predator was its excellent traits of a swimmer, being exceedingly fast in its movement (speed of 1.4 metres per second), traversing one ocean after another.  

The latest digital recreation of the Megalodon has also helped scientists calculate its weight, which was somewhere around 70 tonnes, as much as 10 elephants put together. However, its skeletons were made up of cartilage making it hard to fossilise.  

The new study has also suggested that Megalodon was so gigantic and dangerous that even other high-level predators may have been easy lunch meet for it, placing it at a higher trophic level than that of modern-day predators.