Who is Megalodon and did he live before? Giant shark megalodon
In 1954, the Australian ship Rachel Cohen landed on major renovation in one of the Adelaide docks. The repairs began with “spring cleaning.” We set out to clean the bottom of the ship from shells, and discovered 17 huge teeth stuck in the hull. Each one measures 8 by 10 cm.
In the entire history of the Earth, only one “fish” could boast of such teeth - megalodon. One problem: it became extinct 1.5 million years ago. Or not?
26.5 million years old giant bloodthirsty shark, known as megalodon (Carcharodon megalodon), reigned in the world's oceans. Nothing nature is more terrible haven't created it yet. According to scientists, the length megalodon reached from 20 to 30 meters! And it weighed from 50 to 100 tons. His favorite foods were sperm whales and baleen whales, which he snacked on, as they say, at a time.
Can you imagine the size of the mouth of this monstrous fish if a 10-meter whale was an ordinary hunting object for it? These super predators stood on top food chain. And, so to speak, they kept all aquatic inhabitants in fear.
The huge teeth, which are found throughout the ocean, indicating an incredibly wide distribution of megalodons, are triangular in shape and resemble sharks. The only difference is in scale. The tooth of the largest - the great white shark - does not exceed 6 cm. While in the megalodon the most modest “fang” reaches 10 cm, but the usual size for them is 17-18 cm.
Actually, using these teeth, scientists were able to approximately recreate the appearance and size of the predator, because the most large individuals were female - “megalodonihi”. First they reconstructed the jaw, and then the “figure”, taking into account the fact that the closest relative of megalodons is the great white shark. The result was a kind of “great white”, only more “big-boned”, and also addicted to steroids: the frightening-looking skeleton now flaunts in the Maryland Maritime Museum (USA).
It is simply impossible to pass by and not shudder in horror. A wide skull, massive jaws and a short, blunt snout are an unattractive appearance. As ichthyologists joke, “it’s obvious megalodon was a pig." Next to this giant, a person feels like just a grain of sand. And looking at a 2-meter jaw with 5 rows of teeth makes you shiver. You can’t help but be glad that these monsters are no longer in the ocean.
But is it really not? This is just a big question.
From a geological point of view, animals are considered extinct if no signs of their presence are found for more than 400,000 years. However, let's not forget about the Australian ship Rachel Cohen: tests showed that the teeth found in the bottom of the ship actually belonged to a megalodon. Okay, let's say it was a hoax. But what about the findings of paleontologists and ichthyologists?
The last teeth of megalodons, discovered in the vicinity of Tahiti and in our Baltic Sea, were dated almost as “youthful” - they were given 11 thousand years old. They didn't even have time to petrify properly! Feel the difference: 1.5 million - and 11 thousand years! Don't forget to take into account the fact that only 10% of the world's oceans have been studied. So it may turn out that somewhere out there - in the depths - there are also these “charming fish”.
Would you say that such giant sharks could not go unnoticed? Leave your pride. Deep sea shark, known as largemouth, was discovered by humanity only in 1976. And that was completely by accident: one individual got stuck in the anchor chain of a research vessel in the waters near the island of Oahu (Hawaii). 36 years have passed since then, but during all this time largemouth shark seen only 25 times - and then only in the form of corpses on the coast.
The goblin shark, also known as the goblin shark, discovered its presence in the world's oceans in 1897. And before that it was considered long ago and hopelessly extinct.
AND whale shark people first “found” it in 1828, until then remaining blissfully unaware of its existence.
In addition, no one has scanned the World Ocean. And to the coast megalodon will never come closer - its impressive size will not allow it. So this one shark leads a deep-sea lifestyle. How deep? Good question. Sperm whales, for example, are the largest known to science predatory animals, are able to dive to a depth of 3 kilometers and feel great there: they don’t care about water pressure. True, they have to rise to the surface for a breath of air. Megalodons don’t need this either: their gills supply them with oxygen. So it’s too early, too early to cross them off the list of the living!
Meeting with the “beautiful”
A strong argument in favor of the “survivability” of megalodons is given in his book “Sharks and Rays of the Australian Seas” (1963) by the famous Australian ichthyologist David George Stead.
In 1918 he worked for public service and was responsible for commercial fishing in southern waters Australia. And so he was hastily called from the port of Stevenson: local fishermen refuse to go to sea, scared to death by some huge fish - they need specialist advice. Stead hurried to appear. After questioning the fishermen thoroughly, he found out the following.
Following the established order once and for all, early morning The lobster fishermen went to retrieve the traps they had set the day before. We arrived at the place - Bruton Island. Divers went underwater to attach traps to motorboats. The rest of the team quietly awaited their return. However, the divers rose immediately. In panic, they climbed onto the decks, shouting in different voices: “ Shark! Gigantic shark! Let's get out of here immediately!!"
And indeed, in the water surface the fishermen saw the outlines of a huge terrible fish. Without wasting a second, they hurried to leave scary place. And having recovered from horror, the divers said that, having descended to the bottom, they saw an incredibly large ash-like white shark. She devoured the placed traps with lobsters and neither anchor chains nor cables stopped her.
According to the stories of the fishermen, it turned out that the shark reached 35 meters in length. And her head was the size of the roof of a boat shed.
The ichthyologist did not immediately believe the fishermen: common sense told him that megalodon(and judging by the size of the shark, it could only be him) there was no way he could resurrect and show up in Australian waters. On the other hand, Stead realized: there is no reason for fishermen to lie and avoid work, because their income depends on the catch. Besides, to invent such a story required a certain amount of imagination. The fishermen were experienced sailors, but not dreamers.
So as a scientist, Stead was a complete fiasco: he could neither refute nor confirm the words of the lobster fishermen. For himself, the ichthyologist concluded: one cannot exclude the fact that megalodons still live in the World Ocean. And you know, we tend to agree with him. Who knows what it hides - this deep blue sea?
Steps No. 22 2012
Megalodon- huge view prehistoric shark. The predator inhabited the oceans at the end of the Oligocene - and disappeared at the beginning Neogene period, 2 million years ago. Megalodon is translated as Big Tooth. The exact body shape of Megalodon cannot be reconstructed because of the remains of this species, only the teeth were found - they resemble the teeth of a white shark, but are stronger and much larger.
The lack of remains is explained by the fact that the Megalodon skeleton was built from cartilage, not bones. However, based on the similarities between the teeth of Megalodon and modern white sharks, some scientists have suggested that the body shape of prehistoric predatory fish resembled that of a white shark.
It is estimated that Megalodon reached 12 meters in length and weighed 60 tons. IN old literature it is indicated that the species reached sizes of 30 m and 120 tons, but this is most likely due to incorrect calculation. Megalodon was widespread - remains were found in Europe, Northern and South America, Africa, Malta, New Zealand, Australia, India, Japan, etc.
Megalodon is a predatory fish that hunted large sea animals - mainly prehistoric cetaceans, which made up the bulk of its menu. Megalodon victims lived mainly in warm and shallow waters oceans. The disappearance of Megalodon is associated with climate cooling in the Pliocene era: the oceans cooled, map sea currents changed, glaciers held large number water, which led to a decrease in shelf waters.
Disputes about systematic position megalodon have been going on for about a hundred years. Most modern researchers attribute it to the genus Carcharocles families Otodontidae which completely died out. According to another point of view, more popular in the past, it is included in the same genus with the modern white shark - Carcharodon from the family Lamnidae. Accordingly, his scientific name will Carcharocles megalodon or Carcharodon megalodon .
Megalodon was one of the largest and most powerful predatory fish in vertebrate history. It is difficult to judge the size; a study of the skeletal remains shows that this shark had gigantic size, reached a length of 16 meters and a weight of perhaps up to 47 tons - one of the largest predators in the entire history of the Earth. The bite force probably reached 10.8 tons. It is often assumed that megalodon was similar in appearance and behavior to a white shark. although there are claims that he was not related to her. Fossil remains indicate that megalodon was distributed throughout the world. It was a super predator. located at the top of the food chain. Traces on the bone remains of his victims indicate that he fed on large animals - cetaceans and big fish. Megalodon was one of the largest predators in the entire history of our planet, along with pliosaurs. mosasaurs. Dunkleostea. basilosaurs. Deinosuchus. Sarcosuchus. kronosaurs. which, by modern standards, would surpass in size and gluttony any sea and river predators, except for the seventy-ton sperm whale. which has similar dimensions, but occupies a slightly different ecological niche.
Megalodon is rightfully considered the largest predatory shark in the entire history of the Earth. Huge teeth of this fossil fish people have found them since ancient times. They attributed them to the terrible huge dragon that once inhabited the planet. Already in the 17th century, people began to have a more sober and realistic attitude towards various legends and traditions. Therefore, some scientists have suggested that the huge teeth, reaching a length of 18 cm, did not belong to fairy-tale dragons at all, but to a huge shark that lived in the World Ocean many millions of years ago. They called this one terrible predator megalodon. He lived, according to the geological deposits in which teeth were found, in the period from 25 million to 1.5 million years ago.
Megalodon disappeared from the face of the earth as a result of a general cold snap. It fed mainly on whales, which survived because they were more adapted to cool waters. They felt comfortable with the southern and north poles, while a huge heat-loving shark could not survive low temperatures. Some researchers associate the death of the megalodon with the appearance of killer whales in the World Ocean.
These are toothy and fast predators began to attack the young of the terrible shark and eat it. In general, a clear and clear theory of the disappearance of a terrible monster depths of the sea these days no. There is even a version that megalodon did not sink into the abyss of oblivion, but continues to live in deep ocean waters. This is indicated by individual teeth huge shark, whose age experts estimate at 11 thousand years.
It’s hard to believe that megalodon still exists, since there are no witnesses who have seen this giant predatory fish in person. Its dimensions significantly exceed those of the same white shark. Length predatory fish was 30 meters, weight reached 60 tons. Some researchers are more modest in their assessments. They say the length is 22 meters and the weight is 50 tons, which also sounds very impressive.
The dimensions were calculated based on proportional dependence length of teeth from body length. In this case, a white shark was taken as a sample, as it was most similar to megalodon. The prevailing view these days is that fossil predator was no more than 15-18 meters in length. More impressive dimensions would create food problems for the terrible monster. In other words, predators would devour all the living creatures around them and die of hunger.
Megalodon belonged to the family cartilaginous fish. Hence it is impossible to find his skeleton, since cartilage tissue is more susceptible to destruction than bone tissue. There are only teeth and individual vertebrae. From these fragments it is difficult to create a reliable picture and imagine what a terrible monster really was. However, man has always had a rich imagination. Identifying the fossil fish with a white shark, people have recreated an approximate image scary monster. Layout huge fish on display at the Annapolis Oceanographic Museum in Maryland.
In conclusion, it should be noted that the usual length of a tooth of a powerful predator is 15 cm. The width of this formation is 10 cm, and the thickness reaches 2.5 cm. The length of a white shark tooth reaches only 4 cm, the width is 2.5 cm, and thickness does not exceed 0.6 mm. From here you can get an idea of the size of the fossil fish. As for the speed with which the megalodon moved in aquatic environment, then experts do not have a common opinion here. Most of them are of the opinion that the monster of the deep sea could reach a speed of 70 km/h. That is, according to this characteristic, it also had no competitors in the World Ocean.
Sources: my-hit.org, skybox.org.ua, ymka.tv, gruzdoff.ru, www.tepid.ru
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There are many stories and films about how sharks attack people and how scary they can be. And the most big shark in the world, the megalodon, a photo of which clearly shows how terrible and large it is, has been largest predator, bringing fear and horror to humanity. There is an assumption that, based on its size, the megalodon shark, which became extinct approximately one and a half million years ago, was larger than dinosaurs and could easily swallow an entire car and not even choke. What else interesting is known about the largest shark in the world, megalodon, a photo of which we will present in this article for a better understanding of how dangerous it could be for all living things.
Megalodon dimensions
These sharks grew up to 24 meters in length and weighed about 47 tons. This type sharks, being at the top of the food pyramid, have spoiled quite a few representatives with their teeth oceanic world. The name of the shark translated means “great tooth,” which is quite justified, because from the preserved remains of the teeth it became clear that they were three times the size of the teeth of modern sharks. The length of megalodon teeth usually reached 18 centimeters. In its aggressiveness and size, megalodon could compete even with representatives of other species - this shark could easily kill a flock sea lions. As a result, she probably kept in fear not only people, but also all representatives of the ocean that were of considerable size.
Based on the teeth found, scientists were able to recreate the size of the predator. First, the jaw was reconstructed, which today can be seen in the Maryland Maritime Museum (USA). Just look at the photo of the jaw itself big shark in the world of megalodon - its two-meter size and huge teeth are simply terrifying.
Resemblance to a white shark
The largest shark in the world, megalodon, the photo of which allows you to imagine its enormous size, was the closest relative of white sharks. Apart from the remains of megalodon teeth, no skeleton was found, so researchers of this species had to judge the size and habits of the predator using certain knowledge about white sharks.
Megalodon habits
This shark willingly fed on dolphins, porpoises, sperm whales. Thanks to your huge size she could make her victim any representative of the underwater kingdom. To judge the megalodon's diet, scientists drew conclusions based on the found remains of shark victims that bore the markings of the megalodon's teeth. The shark's main diet included cetaceans - it was their remains with bite marks from huge teeth that were found in considerable quantities. And it was quite easy to determine that these were the teeth of a megalodon - the bite looks huge, and there are also characteristic scratches and jagged edges from the sharpest teeth. Scientists have sometimes even managed to find the remains of whales in which megalodon teeth were found.
As a rule, sharks attack their prey and bite at the very vulnerable spot. But, according to scientists, the largest shark in the world, megalodon, acted differently. From the found remains of the shark's victims, scientists were able to find out that it rammed its prey, trying to break the victim's bones and damage it internal organs. And after such a maneuver, the victim became a feast for the megalodon. Even in cases where the shark victim had large sizes, the megalodon’s tactics did not change - the shark sought to immobilize its prey and then eat it.
Why did the megalodon shark become extinct?
Scientists have put forward hypotheses that explain why the megalodon shark became extinct. First of all, they suggest that this was due to a decrease in water temperature in the world's oceans. Due to growing glaciers, the water level could also drop. All this forced the megalodon to go live in more warm regions, resulting in the loss of the shark's usual breeding grounds.
The cause of the death of the megalodon could have been hunger. It is possible that there was a large extinction of whales, which were part of the shark's main diet. The remaining species of whales preferred to go to other living conditions, and the shark had difficulty finding food for itself.
Also, possible competition with predator whales could lead to the extinction of megalodon. For example, killer whales were much more successful hunters and managed to kill many marine animals, leaving little choice in terms of food for the megalodon. And the shark could not keep up with them because of their high speed movement.
Is the shark really extinct?
Scientists currently studying white sharks are warning all deep diving enthusiasts that megalodon may still live in the ocean waters. What about the teeth that were found? Where did they come from, many may ask? However, scientists suggest that most aquatic predators prefer to be cautious and for many years may not reveal themselves. And the shark could simply lose the tooth.
In addition, the shark teeth, which were the last to be found in Tahiti, were given by scientists as only 11,000 years old. And this despite the fact that it is believed that the shark became extinct one and a half million years ago. In addition, the world's oceans have still been studied very little. And maybe somewhere in its depths there are hidden many secrets and dangerous predators, among which there may be a megalodon.