[imagesource: J.J. Giraldo]

These days, it’s the great white shark that rules the water.

Scratch that – the orcas that snack on shark livers are top of the food chain, followed by the great whites.

It was an altogether different hierarchy millions of years ago when the fabled megalodon roamed the ocean, with new research suggesting the shark “could have devoured a creature the size of a killer whale in just five bites”.

The study was released yesterday, reports The Guardian, with fossil evidence used to create a 3D model of the megalodon:

At around 50ft (16 metres) from nose to tail, the megalodon was longer than a bus, according to the study in the journal Science Advances. That’s about two to three times the size of today’s great white shark. The megalodon’s gaping jaw allowed it to feed on other big creatures. Once it filled its massive stomach, it could roam the oceans for months at a time, the researchers suggest.

Image: Oliver E. Demuth

It was a strong swimmer too, with an average cruising speed faster than sharks today, and could have migrated across multiple oceans with ease, the team calculated.

That 16-metre estimate is roughly in line with the results of a similar study back in 2020, which used mathematical methods and comparisons with living relatives to find the overall size of the shark.

Co-author John Hutchinson called the megalodon a “superpredator” which dominated its ecosystem. That’s easy to believe when you consider that each of its teeth was the size of a human fist.

The name megalodon, which means ‘large tooth’, is thus apt.

Based on their digital creation, researchers calculated that the megalodon would have weighed around 70 tons, or as much as 10 elephants. The creatures lived an estimated 23 million to 2.6m years ago.

Apex predators are often uniquely vulnerable to environmental changes. The Pliocene epoch likely led to sea level changes and a decline in large prey, which forced the megalodon to compete with a number of smaller sharks for a dwindling supply of resources, accelerating its extinction.

Co-author Catalina Pimiento said that would have had a huge effect on the entire ocean ecosystem.

In South Africa, declining great white shark numbers in certain areas have led to the bronze whaler shark emerging as the apex predator, with knock-on effects throughout the food chain.

[source:guardian]