[Rockhounds] Megalodons were skinnier than we previously thought, new study suggests

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Megalodons
<https://cnn.com/2023/07/03/world/megatooth-shark-warm-blood-scn/index.html>,
the huge prehistoric sharks
<https://cnn.com/2022/08/20/world/megalodon-giant-shark-discovery-scn-trnd/index.html>
depicted
in movies such as “The Meg,” had more slender bodies than was previously
thought, according to a new study <https://doi.org/10.26879/1345>.

Many mysteries remain about the biology of megalodons, but until now, great
white sharks had been used to model their appearance. But new research from
a team led by Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University in
Chicago, and Phillip Sternes, a doctoral candidate at the University of
California at Riverside, suggests megalodons would have had skinnier bodies
than great whites.

The Otodus megalodon lived more than 23 million years ago. Fossils of the
extinct giant are hard to come by. While there are plenty of fossilized
shark teeth, their bodies mainly consist of cartilage rather than bones,
and are rarely preserved.

This new research is based on the reappraisal of an incomplete set of
fossil vertebrae found in Belgium.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/22/world/megalodon-body-shape-study-scli-intl-scn/index.html