New research aimed at estimating Megalodon’s body form, taking a fresh look at the extinct predator’s fossil remains, shows that Megalodon’s body was several meters longer and possibly narrower than previous reconstructions. The study builds on “three important pieces of data” that have become available in recent years and presents a very different picture of this giant shark.
The first piece of the mystery puzzle was Megalodon’s body temperature. This feature led the researchers to conclude that this giant fish is a warm-blooded creature just like the great white shark of today. However, Megalodon wasn’t the only creature to join the warm-blooded club.
It was also found that basking sharks that feed on plankton and are still alive are warm-blooded. It was so interesting; Because these types of sharks are slow and lazy swimmers, and this trait is more related to cold-blooded creatures. This led the researchers to conclude that being warm-blooded did not necessarily make Megalodon a fast swimmer.
Megalodon was a slow shark
The third important data was that based on the analysis of the scales, it was determined that Megalodon was a slow shark. In short, two of the three mentioned data caused the researchers to doubt the suitability of the great white shark as a comparison criterion for the megalodon.
Kensho Shimada, one of the supervisors of the recent study says: “The reconstruction of the Megalodon vertebrae, which was done before, and according to which the length of this shark was declared to be 11.1 meters, was based on an incomplete set of fossil vertebrae of this species from Belgium and without considering the length of the head or It was late.” Shimada in cooperation Flip Stearnsled a large team of famous shark experts.
