Otodus megalodon is the largest shark in world history - four times larger than the great white shark, the largest living predatory fish.
Other marine species probably saw it as a monster. It was a gigantic predator, an apex predator, says unit manager Mette Elstrup at Museum Sønderjylland, to TT.
The megalodon disappeared from the world's oceans about 3.6 million years ago, but a sensational find was made in the Danish Gram clay pit in 1978. There, in the old Jutland seabed, a set of megalodon vertebrae was discovered, nearly eleven million years old.
Northernmost find
The reason the find was valued so highly is that there are very few megalodon vertebrae in the world. Shark skeletons consist of cartilage, which breaks down faster than bone. But it was in Gram's clay pit that the vertebrae had been preserved until our time. They are the largest of their kind, and also the ones found furthest from the equator.
For some reason, the vertebrae disappeared during a move in the early 1980s. They were only found a few years ago.
The remains had been damaged during a move and what was left of them was put aside, probably because no one knew how to handle them. Eventually they were forgotten. An employee at the Swedish Natural History Museum found them by chance and realized that they were the remains that had been missing for so long, says Elstrup.
A bit over 60
The vertebrae were scanned in a micro-computed tomography scanner at Aarhus University, and the images of the growth lines showed that the megalodon was at least 64 years old when it died. The researchers have calculated that a megalodon could live to be 96 years old, which would have put this particular animal in its upper middle age.
It is possible. It is not excluded that it could be older, but we would need to find the remains of an older specimen to be able to determine this.
The researchers were also able to confirm that the megalodon could grow up to 24.3 meters long and weigh approximately 94 tons.
In the sediment around the vertebrae, another discovery was made: remains of gills and scales from another shark species, a basking shark. This is the first time that fossil stomach contents have been able to show what megalodon ate. Previously, knowledge has been based on bite marks in fossil bones from other marine species.
It is very likely that the basking shark was the megalodon's last meal, says Elstrup.
The study has been published in Palaeontologia Electronica . It has also been presented in an article on the Aarhus University website .
Otodus megalodon lived in oceans almost all over the world, from 15 million to 3.6 million years ago.
It is the largest shark species in the history of the world.
Remains of the megalodon found in Jutland showed a length of just over 24 meters. Its weight is estimated at 94 tons. As a newborn, it was 3.6 meters long.
Sharks' teeth are constantly replaced. A megalodon is thought to have had between 20,000 and 40,000 teeth in its lifetime.
The largest vertebra from the Jutland megalodon is on display at Museum Sønderjylland, Gram clay pit. Its diameter is 23 centimeters.
Sources: Aarhus University and Museum Sønderjylland.
