It's the largest ocean predator that ever lived.
Its jaws were so big, a full-grown human could comfortably stand inside of them with overhead
room to spare.
Its individual teeth were bigger than a human hand.
It's Megalodon, the most perfect killing machine evolution ever created.
To get a real sense of how incredible an animal Megalodon was, we have to compare it with
its closest modern day cousin- the Great White Shark.
Great Whites are the stuff of nightmares, over 2.5 times as long as a human being and
with serrated teeth that can make short work of an unlucky diver.
But even this fearsome predator is a shrimp compared to Megalodon, and would have hardly
been anything more than a light appetizer to the monster shark.
Megalodon was estimated to grow as large as 50 to 60 feet (15-18 meters), which is bigger
than the largest school buses.
Next time you're happily riding to school, or taking the bus to work, look around at
the passengers with you and imagine that all of you could easily fit inside of Megalodon's
stomach.
Compare that with the average Great White, which can grow as big as 20 feet (6 meters),
or about a third of Megalodon's length.
However, it's not just length that matters, it's also girth, and Megalodon packed some
serious pounds weighing in at a whopping 100 tons, versus the measly 2.3 tons of today's
Great White.
Megalodon means “large tooth” for a reason, with an average tooth measuring 7 inches long
(18 cm), and the average Great White having a tooth around 2 inches in length (use photo
comfortably make an axe out of a single tooth- imagine how hardcore your Minecraft Survival
experience would be if you had to hunt down a Megalodon just to build an axe.
Those teeth were behind the strongest bite ever measured by science, with a Megalodon
having an estimated bite force of 10 to 18 tons, versus a Great White's 1.8 tons.
That's an even stronger bite than a T-rex, with a 3 ton bite and long-time King of the
Chompers.
Of Course Megalodon needed that bite force and huge teeth, because its primary prey was
whales.
No, we're not talking about baby whales like the way great whites and other predators will
sometimes kill- a baby whale wouldn't have been worth the calories expended to hunt it
down and eat it.
We're talking about full-sized whales as big as modern humpbacks.
Only prey that big could possibly satisfy Megalodon's ravenous appetite, though the
young would have hunted smaller prey such as seals, dolphins and sirenians- animals
such as dugongs and manatees.
Basically if you entered the ocean 20 million years ago, you ran the risk of being eaten
by a Megalodon at some stage of its life- absolutely nothing was safe from this incredible
predator.
But surely the biggest animals to ever live would have been safe from Megalodon, right?
The largest animal to ever live is the Blue Whale, which can have sizes up to 100 feet
(30 meters) in length.
That's roughly 25% bigger than a Megalodon- but to a Meg a modern blue whale would have
been nothing but a buffet.
Not only could the Meg's powerful jaws take massive bites out of a blue whale, but it's
believed that Megalodon hunted larger whales by biting off their flippers in a drive-by
style attack.
The whales would be left stranded and swimming in circles, leaving Megalodon to finish its
meal at its leisure.
Smaller whales were simply bitten in half by Megalodon's crushing jaws.
What about the biggest predators to ever swim the seas?
How would they have fared against a Megalodon?
The Tylosaurus was a species of Mosasaur, and nature's answer to spreading the terrifying
power of dinosaurs to the oceans.
Reaching a length of 50 feet (15 meters), Tylosaurus would have rivaled the average
Megalodon in size.
But Tylosaurus didn't hunt animals as big as whales, and stomach remains have shown
that it ate smaller mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, fish, and sharks.
The largest teeth discovered size at just over 2 inches (5 cm), which would have been
like bringing a switchblade to the Megalodon's machete fight.
Simply put, the only ocean predator that could rival a Megalodon was another, bigger Megaladon.
But, if the Meg was the absolute pinnacle of predator evolution, then why did it die
out?
And could it still live today?
Scientists have proposed that Megalodons were wiped out due to one of two events 2.6 million
years ago.
One Meg Killer was believed to be a supernova explosion near the earth, which would have
showered the planet with deadly radiation.
Smaller animals, and those living at greater depths in the ocean, would have been less
affected by the radiation washing over the planet, as their smaller bodies would have
absorbed less of it.
However, the massive Megalodons would have been exposed to massive doses of radiation,
causing untold genetic harm- maybe even outright death.
As the big sharks died off around the world, or passed down damaged DNA, the entire lineage
would have slowly died off over time.
The next Meg-killer, and perhaps working in conjunction with a supernova, was believed
to be climate change.
The earth goes through regular cycles of warming and cooling- and no, the earth is not in a
natural warming cycle now so if you're a climate change denier, you can just stop it with the
bad science.
In fact, the earth was well on its way to another ice age before the industrial revolution.
2.6 million years ago the Earth experienced one of these cooling cycles, and as oceans
cooled the Meg's hunting ranges began to shrink dramatically.
Overcompetition for smaller amounts of prey would have led to an ecosystem collapse which
would have killed off the Meg while allowing smaller, more adaptable sharks to survive.
However, both of these theories are now believed to be incorrect.
New data shows that Megaladon probably went extinct a full million years earlier than
thought- at a date that just happens to coincide with the arrival of the predator that to this
day makes you scan the waves around you every time you take a dip in the ocean.
That's right, the Great White Shark, and as soon as it showed up on the scene it meant
serious trouble for Meg.
That's because while much, much smaller, Great Whites are believed to have outcompeted young
Megalodon for prey.
With young Megs unable to feed, the entire species would have collapsed.
Other data shows that at the height of Megalodon's reign, whales actually began to evolve to
become smaller- possibly because being smaller proved to be an advantage during the reign
of the largest sea predator to have ever lived.
Megalodon's size can be misleading- while it absolutely could have eaten anything in
the ocean, only large prey could have satisfied Megalodon, and prolonged chases for smaller
prey could actually result in a calorie deficit even if the hunt was successful.
With its main food source shrinking in size, and Great White Sharks out competing young
Megs, the fate of the largest sea predator to ever live was sealed.
Or was it?
Could Meg exist today?
Throughout history there have been sightings of giant sharks, and while many of these are
almost certainly nothing but fish tales, some beg the question if Megalodon is still with
us.
In 1875 the British ship HMS Challenger discovered a pair of Megalodon teeth which were dated
by studying the layers of manganese dioxide built up on the teeth.
The date the examination arrived at stunned all who reviewed- and confirmed- the results:
this particular Megalodon had died between 11,000 and 24,000 years ago.
Right as humans were discovering agriculture, anyone taking a dip in the sea could have
been prey to this Megalodon.
Modern analysis however has cast this discovery in serious doubt.
While the date has not been disproven, we now know that the incredible resilience of
shark teeth to erosion can make it extremely difficult to date them accurately.
Australia is well known for its shark populations, but it might just be home to the mighty Meg
itself.
In 1981 Australian naturalist David Stead interviewed a group of fishermen that all
but swore off ever returning to the sea.
According to the men, a massive shark surfaced as they were hauling their crayfish pots on
board, and took several of the pots whole into its massive mouth.
The strength of the animal was so incredible that it actually took the floats supporting
the 3-foot crayfish pots into the depths with it.
The men swore to authorities that the water seemed to 'boil' as the shark surfaced, and
that the animal was definitely not a whale.
Just two decades earlier though, another sighting of a shark of similar size had occurred.
In the 1960s an 85 foot (26 meters) shipping vessel was forced to weigh anchor while the
engine underwent repairs.
The crew on board was stunned to see a massive shark nearly as big as their ship swim lazily
past, and swore on their lives the animal had not been a whale.
Australia is not the only place with possible Megalodon sightings though, and for anyone
planning a vacation to Mexico's sunny coasts, you may want to think twice about getting
in that water.
For decades fishermen in the area have told tales of the Black Demon of Cortez, which
is a massive shark that roams the waters off Mexico's Baja coast.
The shark has very dark coloring- almost black- and has been reported to be as large as 60
feet (19 meters), with a tail that sticks five feet out of the water as the shark swims
along the surface.
That would definitely put it in Megalodon territory, and while many claim that fishermen
are simply seeing whale sharks, those who have seen the beast for themselves know better.
Mainstream science however is not convinced, and according to authorities on the matter,
there is no chance that Megalodon still exists.
Such a massive shark would have drawn much more attention by now, and the carcasses of
its victims would have been discovered with corresponding, massive bite marks.
What's more, because shark teeth are continuously growing and being replaced, we would have
found ample evidence of very recently deposited shark teeth, with no ambiguity to their date.
But the ocean is a very big place, and humanity is still very ignorant about what actually
prowls our planet's waters.
If a population of Megalodons did survive, how could you possibly survive an encounter
with one?
Well, lucky for you, you'd probably survive an encounter with a Meg just fine- as long
as it was a fully grown adult.
Simply put, you're too tiny compared to the mighty meg to be worth the effort of eating,
as these giant sharks would be on the lookout for truly hunger-satisfying prey like humpback
and sperm whales.
Have you ever seen a wildlife documentary on sharks and spotted all the small fishes
swimming alongside a great white, completely unbothered?
That's basically what you would be to a fully grown Megalodon- just another insignificant,
if very weird fish.
However, to a juvenile Megalodon, you would be an easy meal, and until the animal reached
at least 10 years in age humans would very much be on the menu.
Given Megalodon's large diet, unlike a Great White young Megs would likely have no problem
with eating humans.
Today, Great White attacks are rarely fatal, and almost always a case of mistaken identity-
aside from your mom we simply don't have enough fat content to be worth the effort of eating,
and a Great White would rather eat itself a plump seal.
However, if forced to compete for food, young Megs might have no problem with actively hunting
and eating human beings.
And given that a young Meg was likely indistinguishable from a Great White, modern accounts of killer
sharks may just be juvenile Megalodons getting an easy meal.
While science doesn't believe its possible, history's greatest aquatic predator may just
be lurking somewhere out there in the unimaginable depths of the sea.
Maybe if you're lucky, you'll find out for yourself one day... though it'll likely be
a very... fatal discovery.
Now go watch You vs The Meg- How Can You Defeat And Survive It?, or click this other video
instead!