Using fossil evidence to create a three-dimensional model, researchers have found new evidence about the life of one of the biggest predatory animals of all time — the Megalodon. According to the new study published in the journal Science Advances, the Megalodon could “completely ingest, and in as few as five bites,” a prey as big as the killer whale. As heavy as 10 elephants According to the study, the Megalodon was bigger than a school bus at around 50 feet from nose to tail. In comparison, the great white sharks of the present can grow to a maximum length of around 15 feet. Using their digital model, the researchers have suggested that the giant transoceanic predator would have weighed around 70 tonnes — or as much as 10 elephants. Megalodons roamed the oceans an estimated 23 million to 2.6 million years ago. Faster than the sharks of today Using a previously established relationship between speed and body mass, researchers calculated that the Megalodon had an average cruising speed faster than sharks today. According to the research team, the Megalodon had the ability to migrate across multiple oceans. 3D modelling research The technique was used as the Megalodon’s skeleton is made of soft cartilage that doesn’t fossilize well. Using fossils that were available, including mainly teeth and a rare collection of vertebrae that has been with a Belgium museum since the 1860s, computer modelling was used to reconstruct the entire body of the extinct and largest known macropredatory shark. “We completed the model by adding ‘flesh’ around the skeleton using a full-body scan of C carcharias (great white shark),” the researchers said.
