The largest shark of all time, Otodus megalodon, has captured the imagination of paleontologists and the public for decades. The scientific fascination stems from the enormous size of its fossilized teeth. As big as human hands and serrated like kitchen knives, they were used to butcher whales unfortunate enough to cross its path.
Popular culture made him famous. Never before has he caused quite as much excitement as in the 2018 film Megalodon, which is followed by this year’s sequel, Megalodon 2: The Pit.
The adaptation of Steve Alten’s best-selling book, Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror, tells the story of a group of scientists who discover a megalodon in the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific.
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It is undeniable that the film is riddled with scientific inaccuracies. Still, I can’t help but feel a certain appreciation. A ridiculous movie? Yes, but everyone involved is very aware of it, which makes it very entertaining.
In my professional opinion, if a future paleontologist makes new discoveries about the megalodon influenced by this film, it will be worth it. I think so because it’s ultimately my own story.
Paleobiologist thanks to television
I discovered the megalodon on television, particularly in the BBC documentary series Sea Monsters (2003) in which zoologist Nigel Marven visits prehistoric seas. On his ship, Marven travels back in time to dive with ancient beasts.
So I was six years old. Now, twenty years later, I’m a practicing paleobiologist specializing in fossil sharks, and my best-known work involves none other than the megalodon.
A megalodon reconstructed in one study was 16 meters long and weighed more than 61 tons. It was estimated that he could swim at around 1.4 meters per second.JJ Giraldo
Megalodón uses the available scientific knowledge on artistic freedom. Sharks, for example, are exaggerated in size at 27 meters (88 feet). However, the latest scientific extrapolations of tooth sizes estimate a maximum length of 20 meters (65 feet), still making them one of the largest predators to have ever lived.
Some believe that the megalodon’s appeal begins and ends with its massive size. Nothing is further from reality. First of all, this shark was everywhere. Their fossil teeth occur in geological formations on six continents dating back 20 million years to the Miocene and Pliocene (from 23 million years ago to about 3 million years ago).
A ridiculous movie? Yes, but everyone involved is very aware of it, which makes it very entertaining.
Interestingly, some of these formations were shallow habitats where many tiny megalodon teeth have been found: telltale signs of nurseries where the young could grow up with ample food and protection from predators. One such deposit is the Gatun Formation of Panama, referred to in the film.
They devoured orcas in a few bites
Even more interesting is deciphering the megalodon’s predatory nature from the fossil record.
Its huge teeth left bad wounds on cetaceans that fell prey to its tremendous biting power, including baleen whales and even sperm whales.
Using 3D models of a spinal column made up of 140 vertebrae, researchers have calculated the enormous stomach volume, suggesting that the megalodon could eat predators the size of modern-day killer whales with just a few bites.
The upper tooth of a megalodon (right) dwarfs that of a great white shark.Harry Maisch/Florida Gulf Coast University
Current chemical analyzes of the teeth have also produced fantastic results. Megalodon’s nitrogen isotope levels are exceptionally high, suggesting that it was higher up the food chain than any living marine predator. In short, the megalodon was the king of oceanic predators.
Exceptional temperature control
The oxygen isotopes in the fossils show higher body temperatures than the environment. This indicates mesothermy, the ability to maintain an elevated body temperature, seen in only a few species, such as great white sharks, mako sharks, and basking sharks.
Mesothermy improves swimming speed, allowing the Megalodon to travel faster and farther, increasing its chances of finding prey. This active lifestyle would have forced the megalodon to consume more food, around 98,000 kilocalories per day, to justify its size. The loss of their coastal habitats and associated prey restricted their food intake and possibly led to their extinction 3 million years ago.
Some cinematic inaccuracies
The film Megalodon 2 provides some variety. It shows a Megalodon devouring a Tyrannosaurus Rex. The shark first evolved more than 40 million years after the non-bird dinosaurs went extinct, so sadly this showdown between the iconic animals would never have happened in reality. However, it’s a nod to Steve Alten’s original novel, which also contained a fantastical scene. So you just have to look at it as a great moment of cinematic absurdity.
The film also presents the megalodon as an animal that has survived to this day. This is impossible as the fossil record shows that the demise of the megalodon apex predator had a cascading effect on the ecosystem. For example, it led to a proliferation of great white sharks and allowed whales to grow even larger since there were no longer basking sharks to fear.
It is impossible that the megalodon has survived to this day.
Unfortunately, this kind of portrayal in the media, and even more so in cinema, can lead to strange conspiracy theories that say Megalodons are still alive in some way. That’s nonsense, of course, but it’s not necessarily the film’s fault. Mockumentaries that use actors as scientists are far more culpable than a plain Hollywood film.
Would I like to see movies that use all available scientific knowledge to describe such an extraordinary shark? Naturally. But the entertainment is what it is.
Sharks continue to be negatively portrayed in the media, even though up to a third of today’s sharks are threatened with extinction.
So if Hollywood is going to continue depicting megalodons, I think the most interesting aspect of this fictional scenario has yet to be properly explored: would humans be much more dangerous to megalodons than to us? I think the answer is a resounding yes.
We kill up to 100 million sharks a year and the largest are particularly vulnerable.
This could be a powerful story that helps explain to modern audiences the importance and vulnerability of today’s sharks, just as Megalodon 2: The Trench draws attention to the largest shark of all time.
Jack Cooper is a PhD student in paleobiology at Swansea University.
This article was originally published on The Conversation.
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