The primeval shark megalodon was up to 20 meters long - city of Leipzig

Together with Dr. Victor J. Perez, curator at the Calvert Marine Museum in the USA, and the French hobby paleontologist Teddy Badaut, the researchers asked whether the impressive macroraver with the huge, blade-like teeth was actually the largest shark that could ever be.

Since no complete skeleton has been recovered by Otodus Megalodon, the length of the shark is not easy to measure. The fossil inventory of megazahn sharks mainly consists of isolated teeth and rare vertebral bodies, which formed the basis of all previous methods for body length estimate. The recently published study put the accuracy of common methods to estimate the body length by using the most fossil fossil evidence - so -called associated fossil teeth. These are extremely rare rows of teeth, each of which comes from an individual. The study found a clear pattern in which front teeth showed smaller body length estimates than side teeth. This implies that in the previous methods, the tooth positions have an extremely strong influence on the resulting body length.

new method

In order to avoid this potential distortion, a new method for estimating the height based on the added width of all teeth in a row per jaw in the associated stirred teeth was proposed. In sharks there is a direct connection between the width of the jaw and the length of the shark. The jaw width in turn depends directly on the total tooth width of all teeth of a row of teeth. The new method assumes that the ratio of the added width of a row of teeth to the total body length (TL = total body length) is proportional to the living white shark carcharodone carcharias and the extinct megazahnhai otodus megalodon. There are four variables, three of which can be measured and the fourth calculated. This method provides a much more precise derivation for the resulting body length estimates than previous methods.

The method was applied to eleven associated fossil prostheses of five different species: Otodus Megalodon (extinct), Otodus Chubutensis (extinct), Carcharodon Hastalis (extinct), Carcharodon Hubbelli (extinct) and Carcharodon Carcharias (living). These five species have been top predators in flat sea areas in the past 23 million years. In order to calculate a maximum height, the method was extrapolated for the largest known isolated tooth from otodus megalodone by being referred to the largest bit. This led to an estimated maximum body length of 20 meters.

more information

The original study can be found under www.bit.ly/studiemegalodon and also episode 15 of the video podcasts" School’s out!? " of the Natural History Museum Leipzig is dedicated to the topic.

The museum including the hair space can be visited again on March 16, 2021 from Tuesday to Sunday between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. A telephone appointment is currently required at 0341 98221-0.