SHARK WATCH: Megalodon Giant Shark Documentary
By Space Coast Daily // September 2, 2014
are they still out there in the ocean depths?
ABOVE VIDEO: Megalodon, meaning “big tooth,” is an extinct species of shark that lived approximately 28 to 1.5 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era.
Megalodon is regarded as one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history, and likely had a profound impact on the structure of marine communities.
Fossil remains suggest that this giant shark reached a maximum length of 50–70 feet, and also affirm that it had a cosmopolitan distribution. Scientists suggest that Megalodon looked like a stockier version of the great white shark.
The question for researchers is, are they still out there in the ocean depths?
The Megalodon shark was a prehistoric shark that lived from about 25 million years ago to approximately 1.5 million years ago. This shark species has become increasingly popular because the Discovery Channel airs programs that claim it could still exist.
Many scientists say that the shark species definitely exist, while many deride Discovery for airing such programs.
When it was alive, Megalodons were the largest sharks to have ever lived and had a fearsome appetite, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History. By some estimates, Megalodons ate about 2,500 pounds of food every day, including fish and whales.
Fossils show that the sharks could have ingested several humans at the same time.
The sharks had 46 front row teeth, 24 in the upper jaw and 22 in the lower jaw. Most sharks have at least six rows of teeth, and a Megalodon had about 276 teeth at any given time.
