The megalodon was about 20 meters long and not the 15-18 meters long previously estimated. A new study has shown the true size of the most gigantic shark of all time.
At three times the size of today’s largest great white sharks, it has been mathematics, or rather an error in the equations used to calculate the size of sharks, as this new estimate of the size of sharks has been arrived at. the colossal megalodons.
Scientists have been trying to estimate the size of megalodons for more than a century, but the only known remains of the extinct species are fossilized teeth and some vertebrae.
The most accepted methods to estimate the length of these sea giants have used the great white sharks as a comparative, based on the relationship between the size of the teeth and the total length of the body, but the problem is that, like As with humans, the size and shape of a shark’s teeth vary depending on where they are in the mouth , so a researcher must first correctly identify the anterior position of the fossilized tooth in the jaw of a megalodon, which it is quite a complicated job.
Using a new set of mathematical equations based on tooth widths and analyzing sets of fossil teeth from 11 individual sharks, representing five species, including the megalodon, its close relatives, and modern great white sharks , experts were able to compare their width with the average obtained in the study and estimate the size of the shark.
“Although this potentially advances our understanding, we haven’t really resolved the question of how large the megalodon was,” say the authors. There are still things to do.
Reference: Victor Perez et al, Body length estimation of Neogene macrophagous lamniform sharks (Carcharodon and Otodus) derived from associated fossil dentitions, Palaeontologia Electronica (2021). DOI: 10.26879 / 1140
