Connect To Sea – It is not surprising that the megalodon shark is called the animal that rules the ocean. The reason is, almost all sea creatures are afraid of this giant shark. But who would have thought, this fierce shark has become extinct, Connect To Sea.
The megalodon shark or Otodus megalodon, which means big tooth, is the largest prehistoric shark that ever lived in the ocean. Apart from being able to grow up to 18 meters or 60 feet, this ancient giant fish also has jaws 3 meters wide with a total of 276 sharp teeth. It’s no joke!
After years of disappearing from the ocean and becoming a mystery, now scientists have found a bright spot. The megalodon shark was declared extinct around three million years ago.
The cause of the extinction of the megalodon shark is increasingly still a question mark. So, why did the megalodon shark become extinct? To find out the answer. Come on, see the explanation in the following article.
The results of a study examining fossilized teeth from marine giants revealed that competition between other fierce predators, such as the ancestors of the great white shark , is suspected to be one of the causes of the extinction of the megalodon shark.
Because both of them continue to compete to get prey to eat. Over time, the prey for these two fish began to run low. This was followed by the loss of their habitat due to changes in sea levels.
You need to know that great white sharks have a body temperature of around 20 to 30 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the body temperature of megalodon sharks reaches 35 to 40 degrees Celsius.
The results showed that the body temperature of megalodon sharks was much higher than that of great white sharks. That way, megalodon had an active metabolism so this ancient animal needed a lot of food.
It is very unfortunate, when climate change begins to warm, all the megalodon shark’s prey moves towards higher and cooler surfaces.
“Climate change combined with shifts in the habitat of marine animals has become a ‘weapon’ of extinction for the largest shark that has ever existed on Earth,” said Griffiths, quoted by National Geographic, Thursday (29/12/2022).
Thus, this makes the megalodon shark starve because there is a scarcity of prey for it to eat and the emergence of competitors with other predatory fish which drives the megalodon shark to end up extinct.
