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Originally Having a Stocky Build, the Gigantic Megalodon Gets a New Physique

The extinct megalodon has always been likened to a great white shark, with the same stocky body. New research flattens this comparison, giving the megalodon’s physique a makeover.

Jack Knudson
ByJack Knudson
Credit: Ryan Somma/Wikimedia Commons

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When you hear “megalodon,” what comes to mind? If the answer is a gigantic version of a great white shark, the latest revelation in megalodon research might make you reconsider. A recent find by researchers dashes this common perception of the extinct species and grants it a reimagined shape, describing it as more slender than the great white shark.

The modern great white shark has often been referenced when replicating the body of the megalodon (Otodus megalodon), which lived 15 million years to 3.6 million years ago.

Originally, scientists thought the two species were closely related because of similarities in their teeth. They first placed the megalodon in the same family as the great white, Lamnidae. Closer examination, though, revealed that megalodon teeth actually had slight differences in serration and shape, and so it was reclassified into the extinct family Otodontidae.

A new study published in Palaeontologia Electronica has now ...

  • Jack Knudson

    Jack Knudson

    Jack Knudson is an assistant editor for Discover Magazine who writes articles on space, ancient humans, animals, and sustainability, and manages the Planet Earth column of the print issue.

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