The Biggest Shark In History

The largest fish in today's oceans is the whale
shark; the largest recorded specimen was over 40
feet long. However, this fish is all bark and no
bite; it mainly feeds on microscopic plankton
and is very docile to humans. However, the
largest shark in history is a different story:
the extinct Megalodon makes the whale shark look
like a guppy.

The Megalodon shark roamed the world's oceans
during the Cenozoic Era, between 28 and 1.5
million years ago. It is undeniably one of the
largest predators in history; its teeth are
commonly found throughout the world. In the
Renaissance era, naturalists believed that these
triangular fossils had to be the petrified
tongues of dragons or serpents--and no wonder,
since a Megalodon tooth can measure seven inches
long. The teeth of a fearsome Great White shark
are a paltry 2 inches long. Fossilized vertebrae
are also common; the rest of Megalodon's skeleton
was made out of cartilage, like other fish.

It's difficult to correctly estimate the true
size of the Megalodon. While teeth and vertebrae
are impressive, they can't give an accurate
representation of the entire shark; scientists
have had to estimate length and mass, and
several different methods have been proposed
throughout the years. Guesses have been made
about the shark's size by comparing it to it's
modern analogue, the Great White shark. The
conservative estimate is that the Megalodon was
easily more than 52 feet long, surpassing the
whale shark in size; however, it easily could
have reached 82 feet, making the 16-foot Great
White seem like a goldfish by comparison.

Such a gigantic monster--easily the largest
vertebrate predator ever found--has captured the
imagination of scientists; who wouldn't dream of
working on a gigantic ancient shark skeleton?
The Megalodon's serrated teeth chomped down on
prey at an incredible 24,000 pounds of bite
force, three times stronger than that of a T.
Rex. It was probably a quick swimmer, able to
prey on large whales, porpoises, and other
marine mammals. There's no doubt about it: As
far as sharks went, Megalodon was at the top of
the food chain as it traversed the oceans.

So what happened to this incredible monster?
It's not entirely clear why Megalodon went
extinct, but it's not alone; animals that we are
familiar with in the 21st century, existed as
giant versions in ancient Earth's history. As
the world cooled into an ice age, smaller
creatures were at an advantage: feeding,
reproducing and just generally living, required
less energy consumption by them. A food shortage
meant that the Megalodon's days were numbered;
but honestly, after seeing just how big it was,
every ocean swimmer is probably thankful that
they won't encounter this real-life sea monster
anytime soon.


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