(Credit: Ryan Somma/Wikimedia Commons)
Ryan Somma/Wikimedia Commons
An extinct ancestor of the great white shark had a powerful bite that wouldn't just put Jaws to shame, according to a new fossil analysis by Australian researchers.
The colossal force of Carcharodon megalodon - also known as Big Tooth - made even Tyrannosaurus rex look puny [Telegraph].
In the study, to be published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Zoology [subscription required], researchers took CT scans of both the skulls of great white sharks and those of the prehistoric megalodon, who swam the oceans about a million and a half years ago. They made computer models of the skulls, and then ran an analysis on the models that engineers use to determine how machinery holds up under stress.
By looking at the distribution of stress and strain on the sharks' jaws, researchers found that the largest great whites have a ...
