Megalodon lost food fight with great whites

The mystery of why the Meg disappeared may have been solved.

Afight for food with great white sharks may have been one of the reasons why the mighty megalodon died out, according to a new study. The Meg was the largest fish ever to have lived. It grew up to 18 metres long – three times longer than the biggest recorded great white shark. These sea monsters lived from 22 million years ago, but three million years ago they went extinct. The reason has long been unexplained, but a team of international researchers, led by Professor Thomas Tütken from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, think they may have some answers.

The team looked at the teeth of living and extinct sharks to learn about their diet. Chemicals preserved in the teeth provide a record of what sort of things they ate. The researchers discovered that great whites and megalodons most likely enjoyed the same snacks. “This is a piece in the puzzle of evidence that there was competition between the modern great white and the megalodon for food in the oceans, at the time when both were still alive,” said Tütken.

Occupying a similar position in the food chain would mean that the two shark species fought over dolphins, whales and porpoises. The Meg may have lost out, leaving it with not enough food to sustain its mammoth size. However, not everyone agrees. Catalina Pimiento of Swansea University said more work needed to be done. “The mystery of what did megalodon eat and the extent to which it competed with other sharks remains,” she told the BBC.

A lack of food may not have been the only factor contributing to megalodon’s extinction – changes in the global climate were also affecting sea levels and temperatures. The Meg needed warmer waters to survive, but cooling oceans helped great whites – they could feast on bigger fish in cool waters, while megalodons had to settle for smaller fish in warmer waters. If you want to hear more about this epic shark’s tale, check out the Mystery of the Meg in our

Mysteries of Science podcast.

A megalodon hunts in the open ocean.