would you ever venture in the ocean if
he knew this creature could be lurking
beneath you it's twice the size of a
t-rex its jaws are big enough to crush
cars and it can swallow multiple humans
at a time
this ancient beast is called a Megalodon
shark and if it had never become extinct
it would have a surprisingly large
impact on our lives how would it change
the way we use our oceans how big of a
threat would it pose to people and what
are the chances that these creatures
have been hiding deep in our oceans all
this time this is what if and here's
what would happen if Megalodon sharks
had never become extinct over the years
reports of Megalodon sightings have
emerged all over the internet a lot of
them claim that these giant sharks never
went extinct that they've just been
hiding in the deepest part of the ocean
it's a Mariana Trench now you can't dive
down there to check for yourself but
scientists say there's more than enough
evidence to debunk these online accounts
if Megalodon sharks were still around we
definitely know about it by now
our oceans would be a lot more dangerous
here's how we know that Megalodon sharks
haven't been hiding from us this whole
time for starters if Megalodon sharks
still roamed our oceans the last place
they'd be going would be the Mariana
Trench megalodons were warm water
mammals so the frigid temperatures of
the Mariana Trench would make it
impossible for them to survive there
plus if these enormous sharks still
existed
we'd be finding their signature giant
bite marks on other large marine animals
we'd also most likely have found at
least one carcass or skeleton by now but
that hasn't happened the only remnants
we found of these prehistoric monsters
are their teeth and we found a lot of
them
the reason Megalodon teeth are so easy
to find is because they produced a ton
of them unlike humans who only produce
teeth during the early stages of life
sharks continue to produce new sets
throughout their entire lives losing
their teeth almost every two weeks their
teeth would sink down to the bottom of
the ocean where they would likely be
fossilized most megalodons would go
through about 40,000 teeth in their
lifetime that's a lot of remains for us
to discover but because we've never
found an intact Megalodon there's still
a lot we don't know about them here's
what we've been able to find out so far
Megalodon sharks first showed up about
16 million years ago and they were a
dominant predator in the ocean measuring
anywhere between 10 to 18 meters these
giant beasts preyed upon anything from
fish to dolphins and even whales then
about 2 million years ago they
disappeared off the face of the earth
and scientists aren't exactly sure why
one theory is that they became extinct
due to decreasing food sources and
increasing competition for that food
another more intriguing theory is that
megalodons simply couldn't adapt to the
cooling ocean temperatures and that
their prey kept moving to colder waters
to escape them regardless of the reason
behind their extinction you can't help
but imagine how different our oceans
would be today if they had survived it's
estimated that a Megalodon ate about
1,100 kilograms of food each day if they
were still around and eating that much
then there'd barely be enough large fish
left in the ocean for us and that
wouldn't be the only problem for the
fishing industry we could also see
megalodons tracking fishing boats and
stealing the fish they catch just like
some killer whales do with ocean
temperatures warming up again megalodons
will be thriving and reproducing
resulting in even more of these giant
mammals in the water that would spell
trouble for maritime shipping operations
cruise ships and even beachgoers
megalodons gave birth in warm shallow
waters so a nice recreational beach swim
could become very dangerous for us
what would a planet look like if no
animals went extinct maybe one day we'll
be able to bring old species back and
find out but that's a story for another
what if
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