What is Megalodon?
Megalodon is a terrifying huge shark that lived in shallow continental seas from about 18 to 1.5 million years ago. Like other fossil sharks, megalodon, whose name means “big tooth” in Greek, is primarily known from fossilized teeth. These teeth are so hard that they barely deteriorated during the life of the shark, leaving behind fossil teeth so sharp that some amateurs have taken them as evidence that they were left behind relatively recently. Only a few non-dental megalodon fossils have been found, in the form of several vertebra. The megalodon is one of the most interesting and popular fossil fishes, both among the public and the paleontology community. A megalodon tooth is about 5 in (13 cm) long, around the size of a human hand. This is several times larger than a tooth from a great white shark, which usually only measures about an inch (2.5 cm). The fossilized teeth of megalodon are black, though they would have been white during life. Some of these fossils are prized collectors
The Carchodon Megalodon is a huge, prehistoric shark ranging from 30-100 feet long on average. Some scientists believe that it may have even been longer. The length of the creature is determined by the fossil teeth left behind, since sharks have no bones to be fossilized, because they are made of cartilige. The fossil teeth are compared to modern-day great whites to determine their length, and some scientists believe that they could reach lengths of 100-200 ft long, because they are not shure of where the teeth were located in the creature’s mouth that they discovered.( Bigger teeth are located at the center of the mouth, smaller near the outside.
