The megatooth sharkOtodus megalodonwas an downright unit , guess to have been around15 meters(50 feet ) long withfins the size of people(though we do n’t know for sheer certainwhat they front like ) . It ’s difficult , then , to imagine these tremendous apex predators being outcompeted – but new research suggests that great white sharks might have had something to do withO. megalodonshuffling out of existence .
shark ’ tooth , as well as being bully for slicing feed up , carry enormous scientific value . Previous research has used teeth and comparative anatomy toestimate the sizing of extinct marine creature . Now , a new paper published inNature Communicationshas bet at the enamel of megalodon tooth to memorize more about what they were eating when they were animated .
When shark are cooking up new tooth ( they never run out ) , their diet can influence how much atomic number 30 is incorporated into the enamel . By work backwards , scientists can employ atomic number 30 isotope values to make what the toothy proprietor ’ diet were like as well as establish their footing in the food chain .
“ Here , we manifest , for the first clock time , that diet - related zinc isotope signatures are preserved in the highly mineralised enameloid peak of fogey shark teeth , ” said Thomas Tütken , prof at the Johannes Gutenberg University ’s Institute of Geosciences , in astatement .
O. megalodon ’s teeth were analyzed in this way , alongside 13 fossilized specimens plus the tooth of 20 shark species still alive today . The resulting database demonstrated that atomic number 30 was indeed a window into an animate being ’s trophic past , revealing insights into sharks ’ diets as far as 23 million eld ago whenO. megalodonreigned supreme .
A comparison of not bad whites ( Carcharodon carcharias ) and megalodons – two coinage that once coexist during the Early Pliocene – showed that the two sit around side - by - side in the intellectual nourishment strand . This likely indicates that they were after the same prey , such as whales , and so were vie for the same resources .
The largely overlap trophic levels between megalodons and great whites are “ sincerely remarkable , ” saysMichael Griffiths , professor at the William Paterson University , when you take into consideration the animals ’ size . O. megalodonreached around 15 to 20 meter ( 49 to 66 feet ) in size , while our diddy small ( in megatooth terms ) great whitened would ’ve been at most six m ( 19 foot ) .
The exact cause ofmegalodon ’s extinctionisn’t yet love for certain , and while a few ideas have been float in the past the authors of this new newspaper suggest that it was likely the result of a hoi polloi of factors including climate and environmental changes . However , they also demonstrate for the first time that the rivalry posed by great White – despite their comparatively little size – could well have been another nail in the megalodon ’s casket .
The discipline source ’ conclusion represents a rummy crossover in the story of two of Earth ’s greatest predators , but it also promotes a fresh overture for examine dieting that could have lotion outside of shark ecology .
“ Our research illustrates the feasibleness of using Zn isotope to enquire the diet and trophic ecology of nonextant animal over millions of years , a method acting that can also be use to other groups of fossil animals let in our own ancestors , ” concluded lead author Jeremy McCormack , a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and the Goethe - University Frankfurt , in astatement .
