As pictured here, 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.

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.

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. These two branches of the shark family had radically different feeding patterns. The megatooth sharks specialized in hunting whales and sirenians (manatees) in warmer waters, while the white-shark line focused on colder climate hunting, a practice that continues today as young great white sharks switch from fish to seals as they mature.

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.