You're on the hunt for a megalodon skeleton, right? Well, hate to break it to you, but you're in for a bit of disappointment. See, megalodons lived way back in prehistoric times, and over millions of years, their bones have pretty much turned to dust. Plus, they were mostly cartilage, which doesn't fossilize as easily as bone. So, while we've found teeth and some vertebrae, a full megalodon skeleton is as elusive as finding buried treasure. But hey, don't let that stop you from diving into the fascinating world of prehistoric sharks! ✨
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Animation is created by Bright Side.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music by Epidemic Sound https://www.epidemicsound.com
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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Our Social Media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightside
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en
Stock materials (photos, footages and other):
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https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit:
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FunTranscript
00:00 It was the largest fish our Earth had ever seen and its bite was strong enough to crush a car.
00:07 The largest of its teeth found was the length of a remote control.
00:11 It consumed about 2,500 pounds of food a day.
00:16 That's like 3,300 cans of tuna for you.
00:20 The earliest megalodon fossils are from about 20 million years ago.
00:25 But you won't see its skeleton and that's because the mighty Meg had no bones.
00:31 A skeleton made from bones gives most animals their body shape and strength.
00:36 Sharks though come from the same subclass as rays, skates and sawfish and have cartilage instead of bones.
00:43 Cartilage is a tissue that is softer and more flexible than bones,
00:47 but it's still tough enough to shape the body and protect the internal organs.
00:51 Some areas are more flexible since cartilage is weaker and some, like the shark's head,
00:56 are much tougher thanks to calcified cartilage.
00:59 Their snouts though are made of really soft and flexible cartilage
01:04 to work like a bumper in case of a collision with some dangers.
01:08 Who knows if they'd be able to do all this with a heavy skeleton.
01:12 Plus, cartilage makes their jaws more flexible and they can open their mouths much wider than they would with a jaw made of bone.
01:19 Our hero, Meg, was no exception and it had the strongest bite of all living creatures,
01:25 which was also made possible by a skeleton made of cartilage.
01:29 Sharks take full advantage of their cartilage.
01:32 It helps them swim and turn fast while hunting.
01:35 One drawback of this type of skeleton is that it was really tricky for scientists to establish the shape and size of Meg.
01:44 Normally, they would do it using fossilized bone skeletons or their parts.
01:49 With Meg, they had to guess based on the teeth they found and comparisons with living relatives.
01:55 A more recent 3D computer model was based partially on scans of a preserved spine discovered in the 1860s.
02:04 The model showed that Meg was bigger, faster, and even hungrier than scientists had previously thought.
02:11 Looks like an average Megalodon was 52 feet long.
02:15 That's slightly bigger than the height of the Hollywood sign and weighed 10 times as heavy as an elephant.
02:21 There were also much bigger creatures.
02:24 Scientists still aren't sure how the Megalodon got this size.
02:29 The fact that there were bigger and smaller Megs probably has to do with a little something called Bergman's rule.
02:35 It says that the temperature of the surrounding environment affects the animal's body size because they either need to conserve or shed heat.
02:44 The Megalodons that reached cooler waters probably needed more body weight to make sure they survived in low temperatures.
02:51 Those living in warmer waters had to be smaller to avoid burning up.
02:55 If the researchers were correct in their calculations, it also means that Meg reached a cruising speed of over 3 miles per hour, which is much faster than other sharks.
03:06 The still-living Great White Shark can cover a distance of nearly 7,000 miles without stopping, which is 9/10 as long as the diameter of Earth.
03:16 It looks like the Megalodon could have gone much further.
03:20 Megalodons managed to survive on our planet for nearly 70 times longer than humans have.
03:26 They were roaming the oceans for around 20 million years and you could see them pretty much anywhere except near the poles.
03:33 Scientists discovered the most northern fossils off the coast of Denmark and the most southern in New Zealand.
03:39 The reason why there were no Megalodon teeth found in Antarctica is most likely that these adapted to only warm tropical and subtropical waters.
03:49 The younger ones liked to keep to the shores, while full-grown adults preferred coastal areas, but they could easily move into the open ocean as well.
03:59 When our planet went through a period of global cooling and drying and the seas began to freeze around 3.6 million years ago, there was less and less room for Meg to thrive.
04:10 Much of their prey, like smaller whales, seals, and sea turtles, disappeared or relocated to waters that were too cold for our hero.
04:18 And at the same time, the number of its natural competitors, like smaller predatory sharks like the great white shark, and whales increased.
04:27 This shifting food chain dynamics could have been even more dangerous for the Meg than the cold ocean water.
04:34 You're used to seeing them on the big screen as heartless monsters, but these huge sharks were actually loving and caring family guys.
04:42 Scientists discovered several Megalodon nursery areas in Florida, Maryland, Panama, and off the coast of Spain.
04:50 It looks like they gave birth to their young in shallow water environments.
04:54 Then, little Megs would stay there with adults protecting and raising them until they were ready to fight off predators.
05:01 The mighty Meg had 276 teeth in five rows in its mouth.
05:07 Similar to other sharks, it was fast in replacing its worn out or lost teeth.
05:12 With four or five rows of teeth in its mouth, it basically acted like a conveyor belt, able to grow back damaged or missing teeth.
05:20 This means that an adult Megalodon probably would have grown several thousand teeth throughout its lifetime.
05:27 Although the great white shark is often mentioned as Meg's closest relative, they'd hardly be distant cousins.
05:34 The ancestors of today's great white existed at the same time as the Meg, but they weren't best friends and even rivaled each other.
05:43 The great white shark wouldn't win in a head-to-head fight with a Meg, but it was a better hunter using its smaller size and agility to snap up the giant's prey quickly.
05:53 This only left the bigger fish and whales for the Meg, but its food supplies began to run out as the whales swam to the cooler new seas.
06:02 Rather than a great white, the Megalodon is more like a modern bull shark.
06:07 It had a short snout, a flat lower jaw, and huge pectoral fins to support its massive weight and size.
06:15 We also speak of Meg as an extinct giant, but can we be 100% sure it isn't hiding somewhere as we speak?
06:24 After all, we've only explored 5% of our oceans altogether.
06:29 The Mariana Trench is the deepest oceanic trench on Earth, and you could dip the whole of Mount Everest in its deepest part, and over a mile of it would still be above the surface.
06:40 If a Megalodon or two needed a place to hide, that would be the perfect spot.
06:45 It wouldn't be the coziest place to live though, with its cold water and total darkness.
06:50 Plus, the pressure there is 1000 times stronger than at sea level, so if a Meg really were hiding down there, it would have serious issues with its teeth, because calcium would dissolve under that pressure.
07:04 To survive here, it would also need to learn to navigate in complete darkness.
07:09 That means it would have either become bioluminescent or evolved to grow massive eyes like the giant squid.
07:16 If the Meg were still around and true to its dietary choices, it would have to eat smaller fish, and that would be a problem for us humans.
07:25 Especially those of us who love fish that is.
07:28 And the ocean isn't cooling down these days.
07:31 The Megalodon would love its temperature and would thrive and reproduce faster than ever.
07:36 Those giants would create some massive problems for cargo ships and cruising vessels.
07:42 In case you're now scared at the thought of meeting a Megalodon, relax.
07:46 Most scientists don't think it's possible because of our hero's size.
07:50 Most foods that Megalodons like to eat live in shallow ocean areas and not in the deep, deep sea.
07:57 Meg would need to come up for dinner every now and then, and it's kinda hard to miss a creature this big.
08:03 They're both giant prehistoric creatures to us, but the Megalodons and the dinosaurs never actually coexisted.
08:10 The dinosaurs probably died out about 66 million years ago.
08:15 Megalodons seem to have appeared a bit later.
08:18 That's it for today. So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
08:24 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.