Megalodon facts for kids
Quick facts for kids MegalodonTemporal range: Oligocene – Pleistocene
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| Model of the jaws of the megalodon at the American Museum of Natural History | |
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Lamniformes
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Carcharodon
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| Carcharodon megalodon |
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The megalodon was the biggest shark that ever lived. Its scientific name is Carcharodon megalodon. This huge shark lived from about 28 million years ago to 1.5 million years ago. This time period is called the late Oligocene to early Pleistocene epochs.
This giant shark was like a super-sized version of today's great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. Megalodon had some of the largest teeth ever found. Some were over 7 inches (18 cm) long! Nicolaus Steno was the first person to figure out that these teeth came from a giant shark. The megalodon could grow up to 52 feet (16 meters) long and weigh more than 60 tons.
A megalodon's skeleton was made of cartilage. This is the same bendy material found in your nose and ears. But the megalodon's cartilage was strengthened with calcium. Its teeth, however, were bone and can be found in all oceans. Scientists have also found some of its backbones.
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Where Did Megalodon Live?
Fossils show that C. megalodon lived in warm and mild ocean waters. Before North and South America connected, the seas were warmer. This allowed megalodon to live in all the oceans around the world.
C. megalodon lived in many different ocean places. These included shallow waters near the coast and deeper offshore areas. Adult megalodons mostly stayed in deeper waters. They might have moved between coastal and deep ocean waters as they grew older.
What Did Megalodon Eat?
Megalodon hunted large and medium-sized whales. It would attack the strong parts of a whale, like its chest, fins, or tail. This would either stop the whale or kill it quickly with a powerful bite to the chest. Megalodon had one of the strongest bites in animal history!
Because of its huge size, fast swimming, and strong jaws with scary teeth, it was a top predator. It ate many different kinds of animals.
Fossils show that C. megalodon hunted cetaceans. These include dolphins, small whales, and even giant sperm whales. It also ate bowhead whales, rorquals, pinnipeds (like seals), porpoises, sirenians (like manatees), and huge sea turtles.
Marine mammals were a regular meal for megalodon. Many whale bones have been found with clear, deep bite marks. These marks match the teeth of C. megalodon. Scientists have also found megalodon teeth near chewed whale bones. Sometimes, the teeth were even stuck in the bones! There is also fossil proof of megalodon eating pinnipeds. For example, a 127 mm (5 inch) megalodon tooth was found very close to a bitten ear bone of a sea lion.
How Did Megalodon Look and Grow?
What Did Megalodon Look Like?
One idea is that megalodon looked like a very strong great white shark. Its jaws might have been wider and less pointed than a great white's. Its fins would have been similar in shape but thicker because of its size. Some think it might have had small, deep-set eyes, like a pig.
Another idea is that megalodon looked more like a whale shark or a basking shark. These sharks are huge but eat tiny plankton. This idea suggests megalodon had a crescent-shaped tail fin. Its anal fin and second dorsal fin would have been small. It would also have had a caudal keel (a ridge) on each side of its tail fin. This body shape helps large water animals swim fast by reducing water resistance.
How Big Was Megalodon?
It's hard to know exactly how big megalodon was. We only have its fossil teeth and backbones. Because of this, scientists often compare it to the great white shark to guess its size.
Many different size guesses exist for megalodon. In the 1970s, one scientist thought it was about 13 meters (43 feet) long. Later, some thought it could be 24 to 25 meters (79 to 82 feet) long. Today, most scientists agree that C. megalodon could reach about 18 meters (59 feet) long. Its average size was around 10.5 meters (34 feet).
To compare, the largest great white shark ever recorded was 6.1 meters (20 feet). The whale shark, the biggest fish alive today, is about 12.65 meters (41.5 feet). If megalodon was over 16 meters (52 feet) long, it would be the largest fish ever known! It would even be bigger than the ancient fish Leedsichthys.
Male megalodons might have weighed between 12.6 and 33.9 tons. Females might have been even bigger, weighing 27.4 to 59.4 tons. This is because females could be longer, from 13.3 to 17 meters (44 to 56 feet).
A study in 2015 guessed that megalodon usually swam at 18 kilometers per hour (11 mph). This speed makes sense for an animal of its size. For example, a fin whale usually swims between 14.5 and 21.5 kilometers per hour (9 to 13 mph).
Megalodon's huge size might be because of the climate and lots of big prey. It might also have had a special body temperature control. This would have made its body work faster and helped it swim quicker.
Megalodon Teeth and Bite Force
The most common megalodon fossils are its teeth. They are shaped like triangles, very strong, and very big. They have fine serrations (like a saw blade) but no small bumps on the sides. You can also see a V-shape where the root meets the crown.
Megalodon teeth could be over 180 mm (7 inches) long from tip to base. They are the largest teeth of any known shark species. In 1989, a nearly full set of megalodon teeth was found in Japan. Another set was found in the United States. These discoveries helped scientists build models of the megalodon jaw.
Images for kids
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A drawing of a shark's head by Nicolas Steno from his book.
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A megalodon tooth next to two great white shark teeth.
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The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). People once thought it was a close relative of megalodon.
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Reconstructed megalodon jaws on display at the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
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A reconstructed megalodon skeleton on display at the Calvert Marine Museum.
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Coprolite (fossilized poop) believed to be from a megalodon.
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An artist's idea of a megalodon chasing two Eobalaenoptera whales.
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A collection of teeth from young megalodons and C. chubutensis. These were found in a possible nursery area in Panama.
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Megalodon might have become extinct at the same time as smaller baleen whale species, like Piscobalaena nana.
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The ship HMS Challenger found megalodon teeth. They were wrongly dated to be only 11,000 to 24,000 years old.
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See also
In Spanish: Megalodón para niños
