MEGALODON!!!!!!!!
- By: mrbongo
- On: 07/01/2008 10:22:53
- In: Uncategorised
- Comments: 159
After yesterdays highly infomration packed talk on dinosaurs I've been learning about prehistoric sea creatures
or prehisycreats as scientists and boffins call them. I've been mostly learning about the megalodon.
The megalodon probably lived between about 16 to 1.6 million years ago. It is likely the largest predatory fish to have ever lived.
below is a picture of a lady who is payed by the natural history museum to keep a set of megalodon teeth cleen and free from plaque. A trip to the dentist for such a set of teeth would cost the entire museum's budget for the year.
As with all other sharks, the skeleton of megalodon was formed of cartilage and not bone, resulting in the poor skeletal fossil record. However, megalodon's large teeth have survived the ages. The teeth are in many ways similar to great white shark teeth and can measure up to 168 mm (6.61 in) long (maximum slant length).Recent studies cited by Roesch suggest megalodon was a "close relative" of the great white shark. However, a growing number of researchers dispute this close great white shark–megalodon relationship, instead citing convergent evolution as the reason for the dental similarity. Nevertheless, it is extrapolations from the tooth size of megalodon to modern sharks that provide most scientists with a conception of what they believe this ancient superpredator was like.
I would personally be more inclined to believe that the shape of the teeth was due to convergent evolution, and I have illustrated, using circumstantial evidence, what I bvelieve this predator may have looked like below:
Thanks for your time fellow scientists.
Comments