Theory on Megalodon size.
Primal King
MemberCompsognathusFebruary 05, 20143327 Views29 RepliesHey fellow members, I was talking with Mr. Happy and decided to put up my theory on size of Megalodon. Believe it or not, the current 60-70 ft shark may have been a 35-45 ft one. The reason for the new estimate is this. If you look at the great white's tooth, its tooth's root extends beyond the width of the base of the tooth or the tooth extends at the very end of the base to the size of the root like this:
Now, a Megalodon tooth's root actually shrinks in width from the base of the tooth. Like this,
However, the cookie cutter shark , who has teeth large for its size has similar teeth like this:
"If you can't see it... It's already too late."
-Jurassic Apocalypse (by Paden)
"well shit, i think
i was just owned XD
I think we all know that animals are driven to gigantism through specific environmental conditions, such as large prey and plentiful oxygen, etc. These animals become highly specialized, and then become extinct when the food source they specialized in killing, or the environmental conditions change drastically. Nature gives, and it takes away."
Bigger is not always better, there are others examples. But megalodon was of course very big because it hunted very preys, in fact the biggest marine preys, whales, mysticetes or odontocetes...
New papers about megalodon are in preparation. In one of them, they'll establish its size variation depending the period. I've seen the preliminary graph, and at 12 millions years old, one individual is tipped at almost 70 tonnes (based on Gottfried weight regression using Shimada tooth estimates).
I don't know if or when the skeleton will be published, because the local politics are tricky with fossils. But it's very large I confirm.
