15 million years before the movie jaw and boiling water Give to swimmers Heebie-Jeebies, a prehistoric shark species Otodus Megalodon Achieving huge size. Researchers have reevaluated the size of the now extinct beast, and the result is fins.
To refine one’s own estimate of the size of Megalodon, an international team of biologists, paleontologists and anatomists analyzed some of the Megalodon fossils and the morphology of existing shark species. From these data, they infer that prehistoric sharks are sometimes called megatoodon sharks and may grow to a maximum size of 80 feet (24 meters). Their research was published today in the Journal Ancient books on electronicsalso provides some potential insights into the ability of some shark species to achieve magnitude, while others are still infant sharks (doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo).
Based on a 36-foot (11-meter) fossilized Megalodon vertebrae (spine) excavated in Belgium in Belgium, it was studied how large other body parts of the shark might be. Led by paleontologist Kenshu Shimada of Depaul University, they compared the spine of sharks to the body ratios of 145 living species and 20 extinct shark species.
Because of this analysis and its hypothesis that the dragon’s body is similar to most sharks, the researchers estimated that a dragon with a 36-foot spine would have a 6-foot-long (1.8-meter-long) head and a 12-foot-long (3.6-meter-long) (3.6-meter-long). Overall, the person will be 54 feet (16.4 meters).
If you think this is big, you’ll be surprised. The researchers applied these ratios to the supposed giant vertebrae found in Denmark, the largest dragon vertebrae ever. The team concluded that the Danish shark would be 80 feet long (24.3 meters) and weigh 94 tons.
“Currently, the length of 24.3 meters is the largest reasonable estimate O. Megalodon This is proven based on science and current fossil records.
But what is a giant giant like? Since intact bones have never been found, scholars can only study prehistoric beasts by analyzing some of the remains and comparing them to other shark species. Its serrated teeth resemble big white teeth, so both academia and entertainment industry (and the feature image of this article) tend to portray extinct species as giant great white sharks.
But the new study “consolidates the idea O. Megalodon Not only is the huge version of modern great white sharks, supporting our previous research. ” Sternes explained.
“What makes our research different from all previous papers on body size and shape estimation O. Megalodon It is the use of a completely new method that relies not only on modern great white sharks. ” added Jack Wood, co-author and biologist at Florida Atlantic University.
In fact, Wood, Steines and colleagues, the giant big white looks more like a lemon shark than the bulky big white. They later pointed out that today’s giant marine life, such as whale sharks, bas sharks and whales, also have more elongated and fluid dynamic forms. This understanding led them to assume that bulky marine vertebrates (such as great white sharks) cannot grow to huge sizes without changing their body shape (phew!) – otherwise, swimming will become too efficient.
“Many of the explanations we make are still tentative, but they are data-driven and will serve as a reasonable point of reference for future research on biological research. O. Megalodon,” Shimada concluded.
It is worth highlighting that the team’s data-driven approach requires a lot of guesswork and assumptions without accessing the full Megalodon skeleton. Additionally, shark body proportions vary widely, so comparing them to each other may not lead to accurate conclusions. Finally, while vertebrae size is assumed to be related to body length, it is not foolproof. Whether future fossil discoveries will prove that they are correct remains to be seen.
If you’re grateful for the feeling that we no longer need to share the ocean with Megalodons, there’s probably some bad news: This study also suggests that today’s great white sharks may be part of the reason for the extinction of Megalodon 5 million years ago.
((Escape, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo…)
