Scientists reveal a shocking new secret about Megalodon’s sharks

There is something interesting and scary about sharks that seem to be hiding far under human consciousness. Films like 1975 -an JawAbout a large white shark, knocking on the primal human fear of these beings. It is not surprising that the extinct “Megalodon” shark species Otodus megalodonThe largest shark ever known in the fossil records, is also destined to become a Hollywood movie monster in 2018 I.

Rumors abundant that residue citizen Sharks like megalodon can still exist, But despite the internet rumors and B movies may suggest, Megalodon is extinct. While Megalodon is known for the public for monster size, how big is it right? And what exactly does it look like?

Although the Hollywood and popular media films are free to speculate and grow up, scientists are expected to base the reconstruction of extinct creatures in hard science, though this is often challenging. A new study has used a smart approach to develop a new picture of what Megalodon looks like and how big.

Megalodon’s interpretation throughout history

Megalodon’s fossils have made a splash for thousands of years

Scientists believe that Megalodon lived for 20 million years of impressive years, from 23 million to 3.6 million years ago, and swimming in waters around the world. Humans did not exist at the time of Megalodon to be extinct, with our ancestors far away as a upright monkey known as “Australopithecines.” Although humans have never found a living megalodon, people have been looking for fossil megalodon for thousands of years.

Most of these fossil teeth wash on the coast of the United States, especially in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Fossil megalodon teeth have been found in Archeological site in South Ohio and has been associated with Hopwell culture for about two thousand years. This tooth will not be found naturally in Ohio and will have to trade or carry more than 500 miles from the beach.

The ancient Orang Asli in Ohio clearly understood these teeth, which was up to seven inches long, was special, though what they thought Megalodon would look like it was still unclear to archaeologists. European meeting with Megalodon Teeth back to the first century AD, when the Roman leader Pliny The Elder writes about a stone describes the stone he calls Glossopetra Because it “resembles a human tongue”. Modern historians believe that Glossopetra Pliny (“tongue stone” in Greek) may be megalodon teeth.

In 1667, Danish scientist Nicholas Steno, was often considered a “modern geological father” for his pioneer work in stratigrafi, publishing a megalodon fossil dental illustration next to the white shark head. Since then, paleontologists have been trapped in the tradition of using great white sharks as a model for rebuilding Megalodon.

Megalodon’s first 3D model

Does these scientists rebuild Megalodon, or do they jump sharks?

Like modern sharks, megalodon is a cartilagin fish, which means their skeleton is made of cartilage, not bone. Unlike bones, cartilage is rarely preserved in fossil records. For most history, scientists can only guess what looks like megalodon, as fossil teeth are the only waste of this ancient creature. Teeth can tell a lot about animals and how it lives – Fossil megalodon teeth in the north and south of Carolina has revealed a lot about their behavior – But they definitely don’t tell the whole story.

The other part of the fossil from megalodon is a series of 141 vertebrae (spine) found in Belgium. Paleontology traditionally assumes that megalodon is closely related to great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) and also classified in the same genus as Megalodon prisoner. Megalodon reconstruction in the 20th century was a large version of a large white shark, scale to match larger teeth.

The largest Great White Ever recorded average lime About 20 feet, while some megalodon size estimates for 80 feet. However, newer studies on the fine details of Megalodon’s teeth show that they are more closely related to the extinct sharks in the genus OtodusAnd this has raised the question of merit using large white as a model for megalodon.

In 2022, a group of scientists led by “Megalodon Specialist” Jack CooperPh.D., publishes them Megalodon 3D reconstruction in Journal Science. Copper calls the work of “first three -dimensional (3D) Model O. Megalodon”. To generate reconstruction, copper uses “axis frame … from incredible vertebral columns from Belgium, related teeth from the United States, and a C. Carcharias Chondrocranium ” – that is, the spine found in Europe, the teeth found in the United States and the skull from the great white shark.

Cooper reconstruction gives 52 feet long megalodon based on the length of the spinal column 36.4 feet. Cooper arrives at the length of the megalodon spine by increasing the width of every 141 vertebrae found in Belgium.

Other scientists disagree with Cooper’s reconstruction. In paper 2024 published in Paleontologica ElectronicaAnother team of scientists, led by Phillip Sternes, Ph.D., an educator at Seaworld San Diego (one of the San Diego’s top attraction), asserting that 141 megalodon vertebrae in Belgium is from incomplete specimens, some vertebrae may disappear, and “Therefore it is impossible to determine the amount of vertebrae” that megalodon will be based on fossils.

The sternes also emphasized that the number of individual sharks of the vertebra has (even in the same species) different. Large white, for example, can have any of the 170-187 vertebrae. Sternes see Cooper’s estimates as minimum Long for megalodon and sharks may be longer.

A smoother seeker for megalodon

This hydrodynamic model for megalodon no lemon

In March 2025, Another paper in Paleontologica Electronica Take where the publication of the sternes is left. The main author on the paper was Kenshu Shimada, Ph.D., Professor of Biology at Depaul University at Illinois (Sternes studied under Shimada when he was a master student in the front). In this study, Shimada argued to find a slimmer and slim Megalodon, not a large, white -scale body.

Shimada explains that if aquatic creature, Megalodon’s size has a beautiful body like a great white shark, it will “incur excess hydrodynamic costs.” Shimada argues to base the reconstruction of megalodon on different modern sharks -not great white, but lemon sharks, Negaprion Brevirostris.

Lemon sharks have no scary reputation of great white skin and natural attractions in The diving site is considered “secure” to swim with sharks. Shimada argues that megalodon is probably 80 feet long, but to swim efficiently in that size, it should have a long and slim body like lemon sharks. Great White body proportions are not hydrodynamic in that size.

After more than 350 years of achieving Megalodon models from great white sharks, scientists have arrived at the new model to understand what Megalodon looks like and how it lives. It’s easy to understand the desire to imagine Megalodon as a giant big white shark. Any paleontologist or shark fins will want to display Megalodon as a scary monster. However, the shimada image of the graceful and hydrodynamic megalodon is based on the physical reality of underwater life.