The giant shark that threatens the ocean in the new movie "The Meg" is far more terrifying than a simple great white shark; more than 20 times the size of the killer shark in "Jaws," the megalodon is an unparalleled predator and the most powerful to date. The largest shark to ever exist. But does The Meg still exist, or is The Meg just playing on the irresistible summer blockbuster premise that bigger (in every way) is better?
There was a time when megalodons were very real. The name means "big tooth" because its huge teeth were more than a foot in size and were the first evidence of the existence of this giant creature. They swam in the early Miocene oceans about 23 million years ago and remained as apex predators for about 20 million years, according to PLoS. Fossil evidence shows that they fed on sperm whales, dolphins, and various species of baleen whales, the largest group of baleen whales, including the blue whale, considered the largest animal to ever live. They're also not shy about devouring their fellow sharks.
The Meg 's megalodon is pretty exaggerated by Hollywood standards, but not too far from reality. It's difficult to infer the size of the megalodon from the scant fossil evidence, so while there's still a lot of debate about the ultimate size of the megalodon, anything that can be correctly described as "much larger than a great white shark" is scary enough .
In The Meg , when a scientific exploration submarine pierces what is thought to be the bottom of a deep-sea trench, the movie's Megalodon is unleashed, correctly predicting that it is simply a completely isolated patch of warm water. A thick layer of suspended gas over an ecosystem. During a rescue mission, the retreating submarine creates a temporary hotspot that acts like a portal, allowing anything to pass in and out of the barrier without being affected by the cold of the deep ocean.
While plenty of "living fossils" have been discovered over the years — a broad term that refers to species that were thought to be completely extinct but are still around and largely unchanged — it's possible that the megalodon could become a living fossil, according to Gizmodo Sex is minimal. While many living fossil species are indeed sharks, most, such as the blind shark and the Australian ghost shark, are quite small, less than three feet tall. Even the two larger species are not that large. The creepy goblin shark is about 12 feet long, while the frilled shark, which looks like a sea serpent, is about 7 feet long. Giant predators like the megalodon would float around leaving some evidence of their presence.
For one thing, sharks lose teeth like crazy. They are near-perfect eating machines, requiring a constant supply of sharp new teeth to keep up with their consumption. Even if the megalodon was "trapped" in some part of the ocean (it's unlikely that it would comfortably exist at varying depths in nearly every ocean on its own), there are still two types of evidence that some giant feeding machine is still in the ocean Move in the middle. First, some of the megalodon's many teeth would have washed away or been found somewhere in the ocean, and researchers did a thorough exploration and found none.
Second, some of these teeth were found to still be attached to the prey, or at least leave marks on the bones that researchers would also find. Plenty of fossilized whale bones have been found throughout history with markings that match those of megalodon teeth, but whether or not the megalodon completely wiped out its prey, some indirect evidence of its feeding will remain, and given the giant shark It's likely that in many cases something would have been discovered by now.
For those who are disappointed that megalodons don't exist today, don't despair. Next time you're at the beach, be thankful you never have to worry about the largest shark in history wading near its waters.
