Megalodon, the traditional shark typically depicted as a super-sized nice white, was in actual fact a quite totally different beast, in keeping with a brand new evaluation of fossil proof. The fearsome predator was longer, extra slender and hunted differently, a staff of shark scientists has concluded.

Finest recognized from its depiction within the Meg movie franchise, Otodus megalodon went extinct round 3.5 million years in the past. It was one of many largest marine predators to have ever lived, however no full skeleton has ever been discovered, so we are able to’t make certain precisely how giant it was.

A 2022 study by Jack Cooper at Swansea College, UK, and his colleagues reconstructed the animal based mostly on a partial fossilised skeleton often called IRSNB P 9893, housed on the Royal Belgian Institute of Pure Sciences in Brussels. The outcomes confirmed a stocky, highly effective shark constructed for bursts of pace to assault prey, much like the nice white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) of at the moment – however, at 15.9 metres, about thrice as lengthy.

Charles Underwood at Birkbeck, College of London, says that research made “tenuous assumptions” concerning the dimension of megalodon based mostly largely on it having related tooth to a terrific white, although megalodon’s are a lot bigger. He’s a part of a gaggle of 26 shark specialists who goal to set the document straight with a brand new research.

In keeping with Underwood, Cooper’s staff didn’t realise how incomplete the partial skeleton was. Its vertebrae lack the everyday tapering in dimension in direction of each the tail and the top of the shark, he says, indicating that lots of them are lacking.

The staff behind the brand new research says the energy of the spinal column suggests a extra slender physique form than that of a terrific white, as a shark of megalodon’s size formed like a terrific white can be overly cumbersome.

“It might virtually actually not be feeding like trendy nice whites,” says Underwood. “It wouldn’t be hovering over the ocean flooring ready for a whale to maneuver above it after which slamming into it from beneath, principally shredding it. It might contain extra straight pursuit, an extended pursuit, much less of an ambush predator. As a result of it doesn’t have the highest pace; it doesn’t have the acceleration.”

Based mostly on one other partial fossil, the most important recognized specimen of megalodon was estimated to be 20 metres lengthy. Underwood thinks it’d even have been 20 per cent longer, making it 24 metres lengthy.

However Cooper dismisses the brand new research as too simplistic and stands by his reconstruction of a shorter, stockier megalodon. “The lengthy and in need of it’s that irrespective of which speculation you assist about its physique form, it was a really large shark,” he says. “After all, an entire skeleton would go an extended strategy to serving to us discover out extra. However I additionally don’t assume we should always assume this is able to settle all debates on this very charismatic animal.”

The possibilities of discovering an entire, well-preserved specimen could also be slim, nonetheless. Eva Stewart on the College of Southampton, UK, who wasn’t concerned within the analysis, says she has recovered many megalodon tooth whereas scouring for brand spanking new dwell species – however has seen no signal of a extra full specimen.

“I feel it’s simply the remainder of the skeleton doesn’t appear to be nicely preserved,” she says. “With the megalodon, there’s not really a lot fossil proof in any respect.”