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Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 5:33 PM[img]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/VMNH_megalodon.jpg[/img]
Megalodon. The 50-60+ ft, 50+ ton mega shark that swam our oceans between 2 and 20 million years ago. This giant predator had few rivals, but he did have rivals, the most notorious being Brygmophyseter and Livyatan. But what were Megalodon's weaknesses? Well, besides maybe his gills, Megalodon did not really have any noticeable weakness. However, I was watching a show about Great White Sharks. It talked about how Killer Whales(Orcas), have been observed killing White Sharks pretty easily. How? Tonic immobility. All sharks, when flipped upside down, go into this state where they are almost in a trance. If they are held like this for too long, they can die. Megalodon almost certainly was susceptible to tonic immobility. Should a large Livyatan or a pod of Brygmophyseters, get a hold of a Megalodon and hold it upside down, it would not be able to fight back and they could kill the giant shark pretty easily. It seems Megalodon may not have been as invincible as previously thought.
[img]http://www.hawaii.edu/himb/sharklab/pauleyimages/tiger-lateral.jpg[/img]
(Example of tonic immobility)
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
17 Replies
Lord Vader
MemberTyrannosaurus RexSep-24-2013 5:52 PMThat's interesting. Never really thought about it.
Jack of all trades. Master of none
tyrant963
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 6:15 PMinteresting indeed every creature have a weakness even the notorious T-rex!
Eustreptospondylus
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 7:02 PMI knew about tonic immobility in sharks but never thought to apply it to Megalodon. very intresting idea
Deltadromeus
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 7:10 PMSo, they have the same thing as crocs do I guess. Poor Megalodon, you're now a whole lot easier to kill. Rex Fan, when did you watch this?
Hi
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 7:48 PMJust a few days ago. I was watching a show called The Whale That Ate Jaws and they talked about it. It did not register until they showed a picture of an orca holding a great white upside down in the water. Then I started thinking, could that happen to Megalodon? So, I decided to post about it.
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
Deltadromeus
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 8:40 PMAnd did my writing about flipping a croc help bring back the memory, or did you just decide to post it now?
Hi
DinoFights
MemberCompsognathusSep-24-2013 11:03 PM[img]http://th05.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2013/177/8/d/dark_water__black_blood_by_coherentsheaf-d6ahvfe.jpg[/img]
Of course, deep diving physeter Livyatan could simply drag Megalodon to its death after a ram. I see this happening sometimes. Scary when the villain that we love gets humanized (so to speak) by a more horrifying force...
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DinoSteve93
MemberCompsognathusSep-25-2013 6:16 AMVery interesting idea. I've never heard about it, but now I know, I think it was very possible
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Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusSep-25-2013 3:06 PMI agree. Tonic immobility is almost a certainty for Megalodon.
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
Spinolicious
MemberCompsognathusSep-26-2013 9:06 AMReally interesting, I'll need to record that show and watch it sometime :)
\"The point is, your still alive, when they start to eat you...\"
Spinolicious
MemberCompsognathusSep-26-2013 9:19 AMI just watched it~I am... speechless...
\"The point is, your still alive, when they start to eat you...\"
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusSep-26-2013 4:12 PMI know how you feel. I saw that show and, at the end, thought, "Oh my god. Megalodon would have suffered from tonic immobility!"
I'm surprised no one really realized this before. I feel special, haha, JK.
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
DinoFights
MemberCompsognathusSep-28-2013 7:48 PMI watched a video on youtube about a killer whale killing a great white by ramming it to disorientate it, then biting it and holding it still until it died. That 's when I started to wonder if Livyatan could have preyed on Megalodon... After all, the average Megalodon was smaller than the Livyatan holotype.
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ScubaDino
MemberCompsognathusOct-06-2013 6:54 AMWell working with sharks for a living we use the trance like state on a rare basis to safely tag or remove objects from the shark or to take measurements of them, also an Orca is not an whale its the largest of the dolphin species. Killer whale is a silly nickname given them for the very simple fact there is very little they can not hunt.
Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusOct-11-2013 2:17 PMWell DinoFights, that's hard to say for any real certainty.
[img]http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/images/species/l/livyatan-size.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/images/species/m/megalodon-size.jpg[/img]
Just thought I'd point that out.
"Men like me don't start the wars. We just die in them. We've always died in them, and we always will. We don't expect any praise for it, no parades. No one knows our names."
―Alpha-98
DinoFights
MemberCompsognathusOct-11-2013 6:47 PM@scubadino yeah, I know. They're my favorite animal (killer whales) and I see them a lot around here. Well at least I did when I went out fishing a lot in my teen years during vacations from school. I attended a tribal school so they were a big part of our culture as well, which is actually where I picked up my interest for them.
@Rex Fan, that ~20 meter upper average size thing makes me laugh because there's absolutely no way a Megalodon could be that big with the average 5 inch teeth. That would make the larger Megalodon specimens somewhere around 80 feet and the biggest above 90 feet.
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