The giant prehistoric Carcharocles megalodon (or Otodus megalodon for some researchers) was the largest predatory shark swimming in the oceans of the world.
Scientific evidence megalodon lived 16 million to 2.6 million years ago, when it became extinct towards the end of the Pliocene era, when the world’s oceans were much cooler than they are today. Over the years, several research papers have estimated the size of the Meg. Its teeth are large, gradually shaped like flat triangles at the edges – much like the teeth of a white shark. White sharks, mako sharks and porbeagle sharks all belong to the Lamnidae family and called “Lamnidaes”. The close resemblance between the Meg teeth and the living lamnid sharks is strong evidence that Meg was indeed an ancient type of lamnid shark.
This foundation is important, because it forms the basis of how we estimate the size of this ancient monster. Two museum exhibitors recently opened public exhibits featuring spectacular models from megalodon: one on the natural history of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC, and the other on the Boola Bardip, the Western Australian Museum in Perth. Both of these models are outstanding but do not depict exactly the same shark. In addition, which scientific method used?
The Smithsonian’s megalodon model is a full body reconstruction measuring 15 meters. The other, at the museum Boola Bardip, is a beautifully crafted model of Meg’s head. It built under the direction of one of us (Michael) and opened to the public in November. The shape of the ” meghead” is like the head of a white shark, but it has a short and many rounded snot. The alphabet has “dark-backed” and “counter-shading” with a light belly – it is like a white shark, but with less contrast.
In contrast to this color, groundwater makes it easier for hunters to ignore prey. The size of meghead’s jaw was base on multiple teeth of a single ancient shark. These specimens allow us to match the size of the body to the size of the teeth as well as to the smallest tooth in the width of another megalodon found in the Cape Range in Western Australia. The rest of the megheads become 3D models and adapt to the jaws. The result was a head that resembled an animal with a length of about 14 meters. It is the largest Meg shark ever found in Western Australia, but the largest overall.
