TEMPORAL RANGE: 23,000,000–2,600,000 YEARS AGO
Megalodon Teeth
"You're gonna need a bigger boat." ~ Roy Scheider as Police Chief Martin Brody, Jaws (1975)
The fossil record suggests that Megalodon fed on a wide variety of prey. Smaller marine mammals, like dolphins, seals, and manatees were obvious targets, but even the largest early whales were not safe from this enormous apex predator. Analysis suggests that Megalodon was likely a very intelligent hunter, disabling large whales by crushing flippers or piercing internal organs. Recent studies of developing populations of predatory whales also suggest that pack hunting behavior may have developed as a competitive response to Megalodon's dominance.
📸 Above: Rows of Megalodon teeth set into a jaw reconstruction.
MORE ABOUT MEGALODON
📸 A set of different sized Megalodon Tooth Fossils
Powerful Teeth
Computer models suggest that a full-grown Megalodon had the most powerful bite of any known animal in the fossil record, somewhere between 11 and 18 tonnes or 25,000-40,000 pounds. This epic jaw was also lined with enormous teeth - 46 in the front row, to be exact, with 5 more rows waiting behind.
📸 Megalodon Teeth make an excellent compliment to your morning cup of coffee.
Finding a home for Megalodon in the hierarchy of sharks has been an interesting task for science. For years two competing branches of the shark family laid claim to this monster, the Carcharodon or the white-shark line, and the now extinct line of "megatooth" sharks of Carcharocles. The megatooth sharks specialized in hunting whales and sirenians (manatees) in warmer waters, while the white-shark line focused on colder climate hunting.
The debate is still ongoing but most scientists have settled on the megatooth-line based on the feeding pattern of Megalodon. Not surprisingly, the extinction of the Megalodon roughly two million years ago is tied directly to the mega-sizing of modern baleen whales, making their possible food source a harder catch.
The fossil teeth seen here were once a part of the Megalodon's arsenal, but today they are portals into our planet's prehistoric past. With these fossils, you can study the life of one of the most terrifying predators to ever swim the seas and get up close and personal with an incredible historic item.
Front of the Specimen Card
Note: Illustration may vary as we do change them from time to time.
Back of the Specimen Card
📸 A man sits in the reconstructed jaws of a Megalodon on display at the American Museum of Natural History. He looks very relaxed between the teeth of the super predator!
Cajus, G. "Evolution of White and Megatooth Sharks, and Evidence for Early Predation on Seals, Sirenians, and Whales." Natural Science 2013 (2013).
Eilperin, Juliet. Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks. Anchor, 2012.
Pimiento, Catalina, and Christopher F. Clements. "When did Carcharocles Megalodon Become Extinct? A New Analysis of the Fossil Record." PloS one 9.10 (2014): e111086.
