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15 million years before films Jaw And Open water gave swimmers the heebie jeebies, called a prehistoric shark type Otodus megalodon achieved gigantic sizes. The researchers have re-evaluated how big the animal who had now died out-and the results are fine-tasteful.
In order to refine his own estimates of the size of megalodone, an international team of biologists, paleontologists and anatomists analyzed in addition to morphology of existing and extinct shark species. From this data, they extrapolated that the prehistoric shark, which is sometimes referred to as a Megatooth shark, could be grown to a maximum size of 24 meters (24 meters). Her studyPublished in the magazine today Palaeontologia ElectronicaAlso offers potential insights into the question of why certain types of shark could achieve gigantism, while others remained in comparison to baby sharks (compared toDoo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo).
Based on a 36-foot megalodon spine (spine) that was previously excavated in Belgium, the team examined how large the other parts of the shark could have been. Under the direction of the paleobiologist Kenshu Shimada from the University of Depaul, they compared the spine of the shark with the physical dimensions of 145 living sharks and 20 extinct sharks.
As a result of this analysis and its assumption that the body of the megalodon was similar to that of most sharks, the researchers estimated that a megalodon with a 36-foot spine had a 6-foot-length (1.8 meter long) head and 12-foot long tail. Overall, this person would have been 54 feet for 16.4 meters long.
If you think that’s massive, you have a surprise. The researchers used these proportions on a accepted megalodon vertebrae that was discovered in Denmark – some of the largest megalodon vertebrae that were ever discovered. The team came to the conclusion that the Danish shark would have been 80 feet long (24.3 meters) and that 94 tons weighed.
“The length of 24.3 meters is currently the greatest possible adequate estimate for O. megalodon This can be justified on the basis of science and current fossil protocols ” opinion.
But what did a megalodon look like? Since a complete skeleton has never been found, scientists can only examine the prehistoric animal by analyzing partial remains and comparing them with other sharks. However, its jagged teeth are similar to those of great white, so that both science and the entertainment industry (as well as the feature image of this article) represent the extinct species as gigantic large white shark.
But the new study “has determined the idea that O. megalodon was not just a gigantic version of the modern large white shark who supported our previous one study“Sternes explained.
“What distinguishes our study from all previous work to height and form estimates from O. megalodon Is the use of a completely new approach that is not only dependent on the modern large white shark, ”added Jake Wood, co-author and biologist at Florida Atlantic University.
In fact, wood, stars and its colleagues have theorized that the megalodone looked slimmer than the bulky big white, more similar to that than that Lemon shark. They then found that today’s huge marine creatures – such as Whale Haie, Ackhaie and Whales – also have slimmer and hydrodynamic shapes. This realization meant that the bulky marine vertebrates like large white sharks cannot grow to enormous sizes (phew!) Without changing their physical form – otherwise swimming would become too inefficient.
“Many interpretations that we have carried out are still temporary, but they are data driven and are used as appropriate reference points for future studies on the biology of O. megalodon“, Shimada Castle.
It is worthwhile to emphasize that the team’s data-controlled approach required a reasonable amount of assumptions and assumptions without access to a complete megalodone skeleton. In addition, the proportions of the shark body vary dramatically, so that the comparison does not lead to accurate conclusions. While the assumption that the sizes of the vertebrae correlate with the length of the body, it is not foolproof. It remains to be seen whether future fossil discoveries will prove them correctly.
If you are grateful that we no longer have to share the oceans with megalodons, I fear that there are some bad news: the study also revealed that today’s large white shark may have been partly responsible for the extinction of the megalodon 5 million years ago.
((Run away, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo, Doo …)))
