The largest shark currently known to science is Otodus megalodon, or ‘big tooth’.
At ~20m in length, or 24.3m according to a recent reconstructive study, megalodon was roughly twice the size of today’s largest species of shark, the whale shark.
It was deadly too, with giant, powerful jaws lined with more than 250 serrated teeth, each up to 18cm long. A study of megalodon’s massive jaws has revealed that it may have been capable of biting down at a force of 40,000 pounds per square inch; that’s 10x stronger than the bite force of a great white!
What happened to the Megalodon?
Megalodon lived from the Early Miocene (~23 million years ago) to the Early Pliocene and stalked seas all over the world, from Europe to Australia. It hunted some of the largest animals that lived underwater at the time, including whales, dolphins, seals, turtles, and other sharks.
Despite being such an indiscriminate hunter, eating pretty much any large animal it came across, megalodon was unable to stave off extinction. The exact cause of megalodon’s extinction remains unclear, but researchers think that a combination of a cooling climate and increased competition with its cousins, great whites and tiger sharks, may have dealt it a death blow.
More prehistoric creatures
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Main image: a great white shark. Credit: Getty