Faster than any shark alive today and big enough to eat an orca in just five bites: A new study suggests the extinct shark known as a megalodon was an even more impressive superpredator than scientists realized before
The Otodus megalodon, the inspiration behind the 2018 film"The Meg," lived more than 23 million years ago. Fossils of the extinct giant are hard to come by: While there are plenty of fossilized shark teeth, their bodies mainly consist of cartilage rather than bones, and are rarely preserved.
By comparing the figures to the size of modern sharks, they estimated the shark's swimming speed, stomach value, calorie needs, and prey encounter rates.The megalodon they modeled would have been almost 16 meters, or 52 feet, long. It weighed around 61,560 kilograms, or 135,717 pounds, according to their estimates.They estimated the megalodon would have been able to devour prey the size of orca whales -- which can be up to 26 feet long and weigh over 8,000 pounds -- in just five bites.
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