Page 25 - Eclipse - Autumn/Winter 2022
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RESEARCH NEWS
Extinct shark with teeth bigger
than your mobile phone could
eat prey the size of killer whales
n international collaborative of a great white shark which was
team of聽researchers, including scaled up and fitted with 3D scans
from the RVC, have used of聽a聽megalodon dentition. The resulting
Aadvanced 3D modelling to skull was then scaled and attached to
discover the movement and feeding the vertebrae, producing a base model
ecology of the biggest shark to have ever of a聽megalodon聽skeleton.
roamed the oceans 鈥� the megalodon A 3D scan of the full body of a
(Otodus megalodon). The results from great聽white shark was used to add
the reconstruction suggest that a single flesh around the megalodon skeleton,
adult megalodon could have eaten prey producing a full 3D model of its whole
as large as a killer whale and roamed body. This allowed the scientists to
the seas without food for two months.
measure the megalodon鈥檚 surface area,
Until today, there has been little fossil volume and centre of mass. From聽this,
evidence of the marine giant beyond its they could calculate swim speed,
teeth. While scientists have previously stomach volume and daily energy
used tooth measurements and requirements based on relationships
comparisons with other shark species to seen in living sharks.
determine the length of the megalodon The reconstructed megalodon
(up to 20 meters), lack of other remains was聽16聽meters long and weighed
make it difficult to accurately infer how more聽than 61聽tons. It was also estimated
much the extinct giant could eat or how that it could swim at around 1.4聽meters
far it could swim.
per second, required more than
Using 3D digital modelling methods, 98,000聽kilocalories every day and had
designed originally by the RVC for a聽stomach volume of almost 10,000聽litres
modelling dinosaurs, the team used 鈥� making it capable of eating prey as
scans of fossilised vertebrae found big as eight metres 鈥撀爐he聽approximate
in Belgium to reconstruct the spinal equivalent of a modern Orca. Eating this
column, scaling it to real size. They amount would have allowed the shark to
then recreated the skull of a megalodon swim thousands of miles across oceans
using an existing 3D scan of the skull without eating again for two months.
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