The Megalodon is one of the biggest predators that has ever lived on Earth. With a set of 276 teeth and a maximum length of 18 meters, this predator could bite a whale in half. The word Megalodon itself means “big tooth”.
It inhabited the Earth about 2.6 million years ago and then became extinct due to lack of prey and rivalry with other massive predators. Its diet consisted of whales, seals and sea turtles. Its closest “family member” is the great white shark.
Now, since the 2018 movie The Meg came out, many people have been questioning its extinction. Is the Megalodon really extinct or are we feeding each other lies by believing it to be extinct?
There is no definite answer to that, but the closest we get is ‘no’. Megs are sharks that live in warm shallow waters, so if they were not extinct we would have already seen one by now. They are not suited to cold and deep waters, which is why they went extinct: their prey started migrating to colder waters. Another clue that the Meg is probably extinct is that we find fossils of their teeth (which could grow up to 17cm long), but no recent examples. Also, if it was still to exist, it would have to feed on something, but we haven’t yet discovered carcasses of animals that could have been bitten by the Meg.
Other than the movie, many fake videos have been roaming around the web. Click here for a link to the video that proves that the videos are fake.
Maybe there’s a Meg swimming around out there somewhere, but it for now it needn’t be a worry!
(information for this post came from https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/could-megalodon-still-live-deep-ocean/ )
Written by Sarah Geron