With the findings of a recent research, earlier conclusions regarding the Megalodon’s body structure are left with massive teeth marks.
Published in the prestigious international journal Historical Biology, the research takes use of a cutting-edge approach for studying sharks.
“The Meg,” which was released in 2018, depicts a megalodon, a fish that lived between 15 and 3.6 million years ago and is commonly depicted as a gigantic monster. The petrified teeth and vertebrae of Otodus megalodon are the sole evidence we have of their existence and size. This data suggests that they may have grown to 65 feet in length.
As of yet, no more fossil evidence has been unearthed that would allow scientists to make judgments about the bodies of these prehistoric creatures.
“The cartilage in shark bodies does not retain well, thus there are presently no scientific tools to support or deny earlier research on O. megalodon body types,” said Phillip Sternes, a UCR organismal biologist and the study’s primary author.
Researchers have traditionally based their models of Megalodon on current great white sharks. The lamniform shark order includes great whites, which are partly warm-blooded. Megalodons also belong to this group, and it is assumed that they share this partial warmth with great whites.
It was previously considered that having a little amount of warm blood would allow sharks to travel farther than other fish that are more sensitive to temperature. However, it is now thought to improve swimmers’ performance.
In the open ocean, you wouldn’t want to run into one of these Megalodons since they were likely as swift as a great white.
Lamniformes are a diverse group of eight families with a total of fifteen distinct species to be found. Megalodon’s fin and body shape were averaged from the fins and bodies of five warm-blooded Lamniforme taxa, and a basic model for the creature was developed.
It was the goal of Sternes and his colleagues to investigate whether the five species used to define Megalodon’s morphology varied in any way from the remainder of the order, which includes several cold-blooded sharks.
In order to better understand the five species, researchers compared them to each other and to other members of the lamniform group. The fin, head, and body morphologies of sharks were quantitatively compared using field guide drawings.
They were unable to identify any broad patterns that would enable them to identify changes in the form of the body.
There is no such thing as a “warm blooded shark,” Sternes said. “I urge people to investigate theories regarding the Megalodon’s body form and look for a preserved Megalodon fossil as the ultimate prize. There was some uncertainty regarding past research, but this new discovery has cleared it up and reopened the door to new ideas.”
Sternes pioneered the use of this two-dimensional sketching approach on sharks, although others normally utilize real species or pictures of organisms for similar comparisons.
According to him, “the drawings must be precise representations” in order for field guides to accurately identify species. Because certain sharks can only be found in isolated locations, this is a commonly utilized approach in biology.
Many other scientists plan to employ this method to examine difficult-to-collect creatures like snakes or birds. To that end, he hopes that others will continue to investigate the Megalodon.
It may seem to be a step backward in research, says study co-author Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiology professor at DePaul University and one of the paper’s authors. It’s intriguing and thrilling to learn about ancient life via paleontology, the study of fossils, because of the ongoing mystery.
