Surprising Facts About The Forgotten Megalodon

When it comes to prehistoric animals that could end you in a heartbeat, it’s tough to ignore the megalodon. The shark was the beast of the ocean that dominated every inch of the water as its sole purpose was to survive - no matter what it took. From speed to weapons and everything in between, the megalodon really did have it all - until it was gone.

We might have sharks lurking out there in the water today, but they have nothing on the beast that once called the ocean its home. The surprising facts about the forgotten megalodon really do put this lost monster in a new perspective.

A megalodon could reach incredible lengths

No one really knows when the megalodon went extinct because of the lack of complete fossils that have been found. However, using their teeth, scientists have been able to estimate what they were like when they roamed the Earth - and they were tough to miss. That’s because people believe they could have grown as long as 60 feet, meaning nothing stood in their way. They are still the largest predator ever to have lived, a record that will likely never be broken by anything else.

The megalodons have been found in almost every continent

One of the few things we know about the megalodon is they loved shallow, warm water. This is where they would hunt, raise their young, and spend most of their time basking. Losing the warmth of the water is thought to be the reason they went extinct, but it might make it less of a surprise that they have never been found in Antarctica. Megalodons have, though, been found in every other continent around the world.

Megalodons weren’t closely related to great whites

Although they are both fearsome predators, it turns out that great white sharks and megalodons might not have been so closely related after all. They did both branch from the same species of shark at one point. However, a megalodon belongs to a now-extinct species as it was the last of its kind before they all eventually lost their lives.

A megalodon had a varied diet of large animals

Being at the top of the food chain meant there was nothing that stood in the way of the megalodon during their reign of terror. They ate things such as whales and dolphins for breakfast as their 276 serrated teeth were designed to do nothing but rip through flesh and tear things apart. Basically, anything that swam in its way was fair game for a megalodon.

The shark’s teeth are incredibly large

It’s not just the megalodon itself that someone would want to watch out for if they went back in time - it’s their teeth. There have been thousands of teeth discovered over the years, with some measuring up to seven inches long. To put that into perspective, a great white shark’s tooth is just three inches long. Reconstructions of a megalodon’s jaw suggest they could have been up to seven foot wide.

When it comes to surprising facts about the forgotten megalodon, it seems there is still so much to learn about the ancient shark. Although we have a lot of information about the monsters that once roamed the Earth, there is still a long way to go before we have all the answers.