Many people recognize megalodons from the movie The Meg. With similarities to the great white shark and other lamnids, megalodons are often depicted as robust creatures with large bodies. But what if I told you that the megalodon in the movie is not what they actually looked like? Scientists have recently discovered that instead of the hulking silhouette we often associate them with, megalodons were actually long and slender.
Paleo biologist, Kenshu Shimada, has discovered that the great white’s physique would not have been able to support the body of a megalodon. “The new study considers the size proportion between the vertebrae and body in a more biologically realistic manner, which would indicate a leaner body at least compared to the modern great white shark,” he said. Using fossil vertebrae from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Shimada deduced that the megalodon not only differed from the great white, but it may not have looked similar to lamnids at all.
Besides different body types, evidence also suggests different hunting waters and cruising speeds. Back when the megalodon was proposed to be a lamnid, it was assumed to be a fast swimmer and hunter. The new reconstruction of the megalodon indicates that their cruising speed was lower than that of a shark and while their diets were similar, the megalodon’s metabolism was more suited to digesting large, ingested food items.
Unfortunately, without a full skeleton, not much can be certain about megalodons. Scientists like Shimada are doing their best to interpret the fossils we’ve found, but since megalodons were composed mostly of cartilage, reconstruction and solid conclusions are difficult to support.
