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For Ancient Megalodon, Killer Whales Could Be Snacks, Study Says

Today's sharks have nothing on ancient sharks. A giant shark that roamed the oceans millions of years ago could have devoured a creature the size of a killer whale with just five bites, new research suggests.

In a study released Wednesday, researchers used fossil evidence to create a 3D model of a megalodon (one of the biggest predatory fishes ever) of him, giving clues about its life. I found

A study in the journal Science Advancesfound that megalodon was about 16 meters from nose to tail, larger than a school bus. This is about two to three times the size of a modern great white shark. Megalodon's gaping jaws allowed it to eat other large creatures. With their huge stomachs full, researchers suggest they can roam the ocean for months at a time.

Megalodon was also a good swimmer. Its average cruising speed was faster than today's sharks and could easily navigate multiple oceans, they calculated.

"It would be a superpredator that would just dominate its ecosystem," said co-author John Hutchinson, who studies the evolution of animal locomotion at the Royal Veterinary College in England. "There are no real matches.

It was difficult for scientists to get a clear picture of the megalodon," said the study's author, a paleontologist at the University of Zurich and Swansea University in Wales. One Catalina Pimiento said:

The skeleton is made of soft cartilage and does not fossilize well, Pimiento said, so scientists have been searching for rare specimens in Belgian museums since the 1860s. Using what few fossils are available, including a collection of vertebrae.

The researchers also brought in a jaw-equivalent quantity of megalodon teeth, each about the size of a human fist. Scans of modern great white sharks helped flesh out the rest, Hutchinson said.

Based on their digital creations, researchers calculated Megalodon is believed to have weighed about 70 tons, or the equivalent of 10 elephants.

Even other high-level predators may have been Megalodon's lunch meat, and Megalodon It was able to open its jaws to nearly 2 meters wide.

Megalodon lived in esti.Mating between 23 million and 2.6 million years ago.

Megalodon fossils are Because of their rarity, such models require a "leap of the imagination," said Michigan State University paleontologist Michael Gottfried. He was not involved in this research. But he said the results of his research were reasonable, based on what is known about giant sharks.