MEGALODON

Source-The IndianExpress

Context

Using fossil evidence to create a 3-dimensional model, new evidence of the biggest predatory animal, Megalodon which lived 23-2.6 million years ago was modelled.

Features

• The Megalodon was bigger than a school bus at around 50 feet from nose to tail.
• The great white sharks of the present generation can grow to a maximum length of 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.
• Using a previously established relationship between speed & body mass, researchers calculated that the megalodon had an average cruising speed faster than sharks today.
• Megalodon could migrate across multiple oceans.

3D-modeling Research

• The technique was used as the megalodon’s skeleton is made of soft cartilage that doesn’t fossilize well.
• Using available fossils, including main teeth, a rare collection of vertebrates that have been with a Belgium museum since the 1860s.
• Computer modelling was used to reconstruct the entire body of the extinct & largest known macro-predatory shark.