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 ...
