| Megalodon: History's Mega Shark | |||||||
| by BUDDY AMATO | |||||||
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For today's column, we are going to go turn back the clock and look at the most ferocious fish to ever swim the seven seas. With jaws over six feet wide, the megalodon lived 16 million years ago until it went extinct 1.6 million years ago. It was a carnivore, the top predator of its time, with teeth close to a foot long. Shark fossils are rare because sharks have no bones, only cartilage, which does not fossilize well. But their teeth are very hard and coated with a very tough enamel, enabling them to fossilize quite well. Therefore, we have few megalodon "body" fossils but a lot of megalodon teeth! The teeth were as big as a human head; razor sharp and serrated like a steak knife, making the extremely good cutting tools. The jaws of a magalodon, which I already had mentioned were six feet wide, could open six feet high as well! They had flexible ligaments and muscles that made it easy to swallow big objects like whales. It could easily engulf a large great white shark whole. It is likely that the megalodon was forced to extinction by the killer whale, which came into existence about 5 million years ago. Many scientists point out that as killer whales became more abundant, megalodons became fewer and fewer. Killer whales (also known as "orcas"), are very smart animals; you can see how intelligent they are when you go to Sea World. Killer whales exploit other sea mammals by using their brains to crowd them into shallow water or scaring fish into ambushes. If the megalodon had a brain comparable to the great white shark (many think the great white is an evolutionary cousin), then it would have quite dumb and certainly not able to compete with the orca for food. The other advantage killer whales have is that they gravel in groups. They are transient and wander the ocean, but they always stick together and hunt together as well. Because the megalodon hunted alone, they could not compete with a group of killer whales for food, nor could they eat a killer whale because the large group would look out for each other as they do today. Killer whales use their intelligence to cunningly attack great whites because they see them as a danger to their young and as competitors for food. Because of their modern day behavior towards great whites, killer whales would have been able to kill young megalodons easily and possibly even full grown ones too. Whatever happened, megalodons went extinct. However, there are still people in the world who believe they still exist. Like the search for the Loch Ness monster, people are still looking.
Grandmaster Buddy Amato operates Amato's Karate and Weapons Academy, 589 Palmer Avenue, West Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom. For more information, call (732) 671-9555.
Copyright Buddy Amato Amato's Goju-ryu Karate, Nunchaku, Bo-staff, Aikido, Sword, Kendo, Sais, Kick-boxing, Tai-Chi and more 589 Palmer Ave, Keansburg and is the author of Buddys Animal Kingdom, NJ 07734 (732) 671-9555 |
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