Megalodon, the traditional shark usually depicted as a super-sized nice white, was in truth a reasonably completely different beast, based on a brand new evaluation of fossil proof. The fearsome predator was longer, extra slender and hunted another way, a staff of shark scientists has concluded.

Greatest recognized from its depiction within the Meg movie franchise, Otodus megalodon went extinct round 3.5 million years in the past. It was one of many largest marine predators to have ever lived, however no full skeleton has ever been discovered, so we will’t ensure precisely how massive it was.

A 2022 study by Jack Cooper at Swansea College, UK, and his colleagues reconstructed the animal primarily based on a partial fossilised skeleton referred to as IRSNB P 9893, housed on the Royal Belgian Institute of Pure Sciences in Brussels. The outcomes confirmed a stocky, highly effective shark constructed for bursts of pace to assault prey, just like the good white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) of as we speak – however, at 15.9 metres, about thrice as lengthy.

Charles Underwood at Birkbeck, College of London, says that examine made “tenuous assumptions” in regards to the dimension of megalodon primarily based largely on it having comparable tooth to a fantastic white, although megalodon’s are a lot bigger. He’s a part of a bunch of 26 shark consultants who intention to set the document straight with a brand new examine.

In keeping with Underwood, Cooper’s staff didn’t realise how incomplete the partial skeleton was. Its vertebrae lack the everyday tapering in dimension in direction of each the tail and the pinnacle of the shark, he says, indicating that a lot of them are lacking.

The staff behind the brand new examine says the power of the spinal column suggests a extra slender physique form than that of a fantastic white, as a shark of megalodon’s size formed like a fantastic white could be overly cumbersome.

“It could virtually definitely not be feeding like trendy nice whites,” says Underwood. “It wouldn’t be hovering over the ocean ground ready for a whale to maneuver above it after which slamming into it from beneath, mainly shredding it. It could contain extra straight pursuit, an extended pursuit, much less of an ambush predator. As a result of it doesn’t have the highest pace; it doesn’t have the acceleration.”

Based mostly on one other partial fossil, the largest recognized specimen of megalodon was estimated to be 20 metres lengthy. Underwood thinks it would even have been 20 per cent longer, making it 24 metres lengthy.

However Cooper dismisses the brand new examine as too simplistic and stands by his reconstruction of a shorter, stockier megalodon. “The lengthy and wanting it’s that regardless of which speculation you assist about its physique form, it was a really huge shark,” he says. “In fact, an entire skeleton would go a protracted method to serving to us discover out extra. However I additionally don’t suppose we should always assume this could settle all debates on this very charismatic animal.”

The probabilities of discovering an entire, well-preserved specimen could also be slim, nonetheless. Eva Stewart on the College of Southampton, UK, who wasn’t concerned within the analysis, says she has recovered many megalodon tooth whereas scouring for brand spanking new reside species – however has seen no signal of a extra full specimen.

“I feel it’s simply the remainder of the skeleton doesn’t appear to be properly preserved,” she says. “With the megalodon, there’s not truly a lot fossil proof in any respect.”