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Megalodon was real, megalodon was the biggest shark in the world. Do you want to know more about Megalodon? For example, can he bite a ship in half, or what really wiped out Megalodon shark?
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00:00The megalodon was the biggest shark to ever live.
00:03Not only that, it's one of the biggest fish and the largest predator in Earth's history.
00:08They've been known to reach lengths of up to a whopping 70 feet.
00:11That's over three times longer than the biggest great white shark on record.
00:15The females have also been found to be around twice the size of the males.
00:19The megalodon could swallow a small car without it even touching its teeth,
00:24if cars had been around that.
00:25Its teeth could grow to over 7 inches long.
00:28It looks like we're going to need a bigger boat,
00:30and best make it steel-plated, as this shark can easily gnaw its way through ships.
00:35The underwater terror could bite a ship clean in half
00:38with the highest bite force ever calculated for any animal, living or extinct.
00:43The force of its ferocious bite was up to 40,000 pounds.
00:47That's around 108,000 times the strength of a human's
00:50and 10 times the force of a modern crocodile's bite.
00:54Its chomp is so strong that it makes the T-Rex's bite look about as powerful as my granny's,
00:59after she's taken her dentures out.
01:01In fact, the Meg was so big and powerful that it had no natural predators.
01:06It was the uncrowned king of the seas, swimming freely from ocean to ocean.
01:11This cosmopolitan creature was found all over the world,
01:14from America to Europe and Australia to Japan,
01:17assuming there were countries back then.
01:19Meg fossils have been found on every continent except Antarctica.
01:24Everybody skips Antarctica.
01:26Science tells us that the Megalodon went extinct over 3.6 million years ago.
01:30But could they still be alive at the deepest depths of the ocean?
01:34Only around 80% of the ocean has been explored,
01:37and its deepest point, the Mariana Trench, is over 7 miles down.
01:41So who knows what's lurking at the bottom?
01:44If you did manage to make it down, it is unlikely that you'll run into a Meg, though.
01:48The sharks, like us, preferred warmer coastal waters.
01:52Deep ocean living would be too cold for the beasts, and food would be scarce.
01:56Their entire bodies would also have to evolve to avoid being squished by the enormous water pressure down there.
02:03It's unlikely they're still around, but not impossible.
02:06Some good news if you do run into one is that the shark is pretty unlikely to eat you.
02:11You are way too small a meal for the Megalodon, even if you have a couple of friends with you.
02:16This guy eats whales that are over 50 feet long.
02:19If you're having a beach party, though, it's a different story.
02:23In a beach full of swimmers, the shark very well might creep up,
02:27scooping several humans into its giant mouth without even chewing.
02:30But wait, let's rewind.
02:32How does the shark take down a 50-foot whale?
02:34It first bites off its fins, making the whale unable to swim away.
02:39It then casually munches it down piece by piece.
02:42Because of their size, sharks had to consume over a ton of food every single day just to sustain themselves.
02:48Like me.
02:49All that food made the Megalodon extremely heavy.
02:52They ranged from anywhere between 50 to over 100 tons.
02:56For context, that's around the same as 7 to 16 adult male African elephants.
03:01To fit all this food in, their jaws had to open pretty wide.
03:05A Megalodon's jaw could span 9 by 11 feet wide.
03:09That's easily big enough to swallow two adult humans side by side.
03:13The fearsome name Megalodon comes from two Greek words.
03:17Mega, meaning big, and odont, meaning tooth.
03:20So combined, they mean what?
03:23Big tooth.
03:24And it certainly lives up to its name.
03:26Just one of its chompers is the same size as a human head.
03:30It had 276 humongous teeth in total across 5 terrifying rows.
03:35In all of history, only a couple of saber-toothed cats and the T-Rex had consistently bigger teeth.
03:41Now that's a showdown I'd like to watch.
03:44The Megalodon vanished millions of years ago, leaving only huge teeth to be found by modern archaeologists.
03:50They literally disappeared with very few traces left.
03:53Scientists believe that over time, sea levels dropped and the ocean temperatures went down rapidly.
03:58Over a third of all marine life was wiped out as the oceans cooled, and a number of animals at
04:04the bottom of the food chain plummeted.
04:06This had a catastrophic effect on the hungry predators at the top.
04:10Sorry, guys.
04:11It became way too cold for these sun-loving sharks, too, which made it difficult for them to reproduce since
04:17they gave birth in warm waters.
04:19The Megalodon is usually described as a sort of giant great white shark, but this is just a common myth.
04:25In fact, the ancestors of today's great white existed at the same time as the Meg.
04:30But they weren't best buddies, and were even in competition with each other.
04:34The great white shark was a better hunter, using its smaller size and agility to snap up the Meg's prey
04:40quickly.
04:41They were also known to eat Meg pups, who were only half their size.
04:45This didn't help the whole extinction thing.
04:48Even infant Megalodons were huge, coming in at just under 7 feet.
04:52While a great white was no match for an adult Meg in a head-to-head fight, they sure weren't
04:57scared of stealing their food.
04:59This only left the bigger fish and whales for the Meg, but its food supplies began to run out as
05:04the whales swam to the cooler new seas.
05:06The whales adapted to prefer the colder temperatures, leaving our friend the Meg behind.
05:11The Megalodons either starved or were frozen into extinction by the Ice Age.
05:15Rather than a great white, the Megalodon is more like a modern bull shark.
05:20It had a short snout, flat lower jaw, and huge pectoral fins to support its massive weight and size.
05:27As scary as they are, these sharks were actually caring family guys.
05:31Several Megalodon nursery areas have been discovered in Florida, Maryland, and Panama.
05:36They gave birth to their young in shallow water environments.
05:38We know this from discovering loads of tiny Megalodon teeth found in these areas.
05:44Gee, I wonder if they had nannies too.
05:46But how come there are so many Megalodon teeth out there for us to analyze?
05:50Well, due to their messy, aggressive eating habits, sharks regularly lose their teeth.
05:55They lose a set of teeth every 1-2 weeks.
05:58That's 40,000 teeth in a lifetime.
06:00They must rake in a fortune from the tooth fairy.
06:03Because of this, their teeth were continuously raining down to the ocean floor.
06:07Luckily for us, they're also the hardest part of a shark skeleton.
06:11Which is why so many teeth have survived and become fossilized.
06:14It's fair to say that the first discoveries of the Meg's teeth confused people.
06:19Early discoverers thought the Meg's teeth were petrified tongues of ancient serpent creatures.
06:24They even used to call them tongue stones.
06:26It's also a common myth that the Megalodon was around at the same time as the dinosaurs.
06:31Although, this would have been pretty cool.
06:33The dinosaurs were wiped out around 66 million years ago.
06:37But the Megalodons came much later.
06:39The oldest Meg fossil is only around 23 million years old.
06:43But it's tricky to pinpoint the exact date.
06:46After all, calendars weren't invented yet.
06:48They became extinct way before humans even evolved.
06:52The earliest Homo sapiens, which is a fancy name for the first humans, emerged about 2.5 million years ago.
06:58But what if the Megalodon shark didn't go extinct?
07:02Whale populations have dropped drastically since these guys were last round, so there'd be way fewer whales for them to
07:08chomp down on.
07:09Whales have also gotten a lot smarter and learned new defensive moves, making them way harder to take down.
07:15It's estimated that they ate around 12 tons of food each day.
07:18If they were still around and eating that much, they'd be forced to eat smaller fish, and there'd be barely
07:24enough big fish for us humans to survive on.
07:27The naughty Megalodons would also be able to track fishing boats and steal the fish that they worked hard to
07:33collect.
07:33It's safe to say we'd see a lot less fish in the aisles of your neighborhood supermarket.
07:38As our ocean temperatures are heating up again, the sharks would also thrive and reproduce faster than ever.
07:44There'd be more and more of these giant eating machines in the water, reducing our fish supply even more.
07:50It would also cause massive problems for cargo ships and cruising vessels.
07:54Imagine coming into contact with one of these bad boys while you're sunbathing on the deck.
07:59Even beachgoers would be hard hit.
08:02Megalodons give birth in shallow waters,
08:04so many of our favorite beaches would quickly become dangerous shark nursing grounds.
08:09Hey, where did that beach volleyball game go?
08:11They were playing just a moment ago.
08:17Dwarf lantern shark.
08:19Sounds kind of like a superhero, huh?
08:21This is the smallest shark in the world.
08:24It's only the size of your palm, and it can glow in the dark.
08:27Well, that's a superpower.
08:29Blue-ringed octopus.
08:31The most beautiful octopus in the world.
08:34But the bright colors of animals usually indicate they're venomous.
08:37An antidote to its venom is yet to be found.
08:40Although, this little guy is the size of a TV remote.
08:45Sarcastic fringehead.
08:47Though this fish is only 12 inches long, it can eat prey much larger.
08:52Its jaw can open just like a dinosaur's.
08:55The sarcastic fringehead has been known to attempt to swallow a whole octopus.
09:00Hey, can't we all just get along?
09:02Red lionfish.
09:04This beauty has an incredible appetite.
09:07It can eat fish two-thirds the size of its body.
09:10And it hides the needles on its fins, which contain a potent venom.
09:15Striped surgeonfish.
09:17It has scalpel-sharp spikes on its fins.
09:19Not to perform surgery, but to hunt.
09:22And unlike a doctor, it has venom on them.
09:26Black dragonfish.
09:28This is the only fish that can produce infrared light thanks to the chlorophyll in its eyes.
09:33It lives only at a depth of 6,600 feet.
09:37And you can only reach that depth in a special submarine.
09:42Reefstonefish.
09:42This genius of camouflage usually lies on the bottom and pretends to be a rock.
09:49Tourists can often step on it, and sharp needles on its back can easily cut even through the hard sole
09:55of a boot.
09:57Viperfish.
09:57This fish, the size of your forearm, has the largest teeth in relation to its head in the world.
10:03But you're unlikely to encounter it, because it lives at a depth of 13,000 feet.
10:10Lampreit.
10:11These are parasites that stick up to other creatures and live off of them.
10:15Only these guys are 10 times bigger than the average river leech.
10:20Mega piranha.
10:21The most aggressive fish in the world, the size of a Doberman dog.
10:26A pack of these guys could leave nothing of an entire cow in just a couple of minutes.
10:31Fortunately for all of us, they ceased to exist 8 million years ago.
10:37Black paku.
10:38Pretty ordinary big fish, until it opens its mouth.
10:42It has human-like teeth.
10:45And the richest black paku even had golden dental crowns.
10:49Just kidding.
10:51Payara.
10:52The most dangerous freshwater resident.
10:55It can swallow prey half its size.
10:57Even piranhas fear this monster.
11:01Anglerfish.
11:02It has a fishing rod on its head.
11:04It's a bait that lures small fish right into the mouth of this hunter.
11:10Slender snipe eel.
11:11It's very long and flexible due to the number of vertebrae in its back.
11:16There are 750 of them.
11:18By comparison, we only have 33 to 34 vertebrae.
11:23Barracuda.
11:24Its jaw is similar to that of a great white shark.
11:27But its trademark is speed.
11:29It would beat any Olympic swimmer at 29 miles per hour.
11:33Ocean sunfish.
11:35Ocean sunfish.
11:35It's a fish the size of an adult person.
11:38And it's the heaviest bony fish in the world.
11:41Although peaceful, thank goodness, they sometimes damage the bottoms of small fishing boats.
11:47Frilled shark.
11:48Its length would allow it to successfully play basketball.
11:52It hunts with the strategy of a snake.
11:54The shark bends its body and then makes a sharp dash forward.
11:58And it has 300 teeth.
12:00Plenty of frills there.
12:03Electric eel.
12:04Its feature is its electrical organs, which can discharge four times as much as a normal household socket.
12:11The electric eel's shot can easily stun a large horse.
12:16Box jellyfish.
12:17It doesn't just drift in the waves near a shore like a regular jellyfish.
12:22Oh no.
12:23These guys are very fast and can even catch up with a person in the water.
12:27And their sting is hazardous.
12:29They don't look for trouble, but they're always ready to defend themselves.
12:34Goblin shark.
12:35Its snout ends in a long, blade-like outgrowth.
12:38And its jaw could extend all the way to the end of the snout.
12:42It's one of the most terrifying sharks in the world, despite its tender pink color.
12:48Saltwater crocodile.
12:50This is the most bad-tempered crocodile on the planet.
12:53And one of the largest at 20 feet.
12:55They're not afraid of humans, and only consider us as food.
13:00Hey, don't snack on me.
13:02Great white shark.
13:04The most notorious inhabitant of the oceans.
13:07Once, a great white shark pierced the bottom of a tourist yacht.
13:11The boat sank, but luckily, no one was injured or eaten.
13:16Greenland shark.
13:17These are the real, long-livers of the marine world.
13:20They have a very slow metabolism and can live up to 300 years.
13:25For comparison, the oldest human was 122 years old.
13:30Giant oarfish.
13:32This fish is as long as a giant anaconda.
13:35And it hauls the title of the largest bonefish in the world.
13:39Giant manta ray.
13:41This creature might look like it's smiling, but it'll rush at you without hesitation.
13:45They reach up to 16 feet in diameter and have a very sharp spike with a neurotoxin.
13:52Great.
13:53Orca.
13:54They can swim at the speed of a car and are as big as a large minivan.
13:59And they're the only sea hunters that can jump out onto the coast and grab their prey there.
14:06Dunkleosteus.
14:07This guy was the size of a limousine.
14:09Although it had no teeth, it had bony plates that gave it one of the strongest bites among sea creatures.
14:17This is an ancient clam of incredible size.
14:21But 90% of its entire body was a cone shell.
14:25It was heavy, which prevented it from moving very fast.
14:29So most of the time, Camryosiris lay motionless on the bottom, waiting for small fish to swim by.
14:38It was similar to a crocodile, only several times larger.
14:42The remains of one of them contained dinosaur bones.
14:46So, Chronosaurus hunted not only in the sea, but also on land.
14:52Pelicoprion.
14:53One of the few species to survive the Triassic extinction event.
14:57It did so thanks to its high intelligence and a powerful fighting tool, the circular saw-shaped jaw on its
15:04nose.
15:05Elasmosaurus.
15:06It's appearance resembles a giraffe, only twice as big.
15:10And these guys were real travelers.
15:13They swallowed small rocks to grind their food.
15:16300 rocks from all over the world were found in the remains of one of them.
15:21Colossal squid.
15:22It weighs as much as two polar bears and is five times as long as a human.
15:27They're extremely rare, but still exist far out in the cold waters of our planet.
15:33Humpback whale.
15:34Like ordinary whales, they feed on plankton and small fish, using their mouth as a huge net.
15:41They use their giant tail to stun large schools of fish.
15:45Mosasaurus.
15:46Aren't you impressed that I can say these Latin names?
15:49No?
15:49Oh well.
15:51The Mosasaurus were as big as a subway car and were the kings of the seas 66 million years ago.
15:57Their jaw and skull were snake-like, and they could swallow their prey whole.
16:02Today, we can still find their relatives, the monitor lizards.
16:06They monitor where you go.
16:08Not really.
16:11Melville's Leviathan.
16:12Now this guy had the biggest teeth ever known.
16:15They were basically as big as half your hand.
16:18And their appearance resembled something between an orca and a sperm whale.
16:22They were bigger than a school bus, but they weren't hunters.
16:28Their large size prevented them from being fast, so they fed mostly on plankton.
16:34Megalodon.
16:35Ooh.
16:36The most famous ancient sea creature.
16:38They were heavier than a tank or even a small house.
16:42Some people think they're still living in the deep waters of the ocean.
16:45But this, of course, is not true.
16:49Bessilosaurus.
16:51Giant ancestors of modern whales.
16:53They had large lower limbs.
16:55Perhaps it's because they used to be land creatures.
16:58But in the course of evolution, they gradually moved into the water.
17:03Catch-a-lot.
17:04Sounds like it should have been on a baseball team.
17:07They were almost as long as a basketball court.
17:10Their brains weighed 15 pounds.
17:12That's seven times the weight of a human brain.
17:15Say whale.
17:17Okay.
17:17Whale.
17:19Actually, it's its name, not a command.
17:21One of the best swimmers of all whales.
17:24Say whale could go up to 31 miles per hour and dive deeper than the height of the Empire State
17:30Building.
17:31Shastasaurus.
17:33Though only bones remain of this monster, calculations say it was as long as a tennis court or as a
17:39truck and trailer.
17:41Blue whale.
17:42The largest mammal to ever live on our planet.
17:45Its heart alone weighs as much as a big motorcycle.
17:49And its veins are as wide as a big pot.
17:52And these guys can sing songs.
17:54Lion's Mane Jellyfish.
17:56The world's largest jellyfish.
17:59It has a hat seven feet wide and tentacles as long as a ten-story building.
18:04Although they're not dangerous at all, people can still get tangled in their incredible tentacles like in a neck.
18:12Portuguese man-o'-war.
18:13Although its head is very small, just like an ordinary jellyfish, its tentacles are as long as half a soccer
18:20field.
18:20And these things are venomous.
18:22They paralyze fish and anything caught in them.
18:26Even people.
18:27So, like, stay away, huh?
18:31The Megalodon shark roamed the ocean, scaring and chewing everything to pieces long after the dinosaurs were wiped out by
18:40the great meteorite.
18:41We know that it was the largest and most dangerous hunter that ever lived, as well as the biggest shark.
18:47It was the king of all seas, swimming freely between most parts of the ocean.
18:52But then, about 2.5 million years ago, the last of its kind disappeared from Earth forever, leaving only huge
19:00teeth to be found by modern archaeologists.
19:03And it could be because of the great white sharks.
19:06The Megalodon is usually described as a sort of gigantic version of this marine animal.
19:12This is a common misconception people make because these creatures were thought to be related.
19:17In fact, the Meg looked more like a modern bull shark.
19:21It had a short snout, a flat lower jaw, and long and massive pectoral fins that supported its weight.
19:28And what's more important, the ancestors of today's great whites existed at the same time as the Megalodon.
19:35But with great size comes great clumsiness.
19:39Although the Meg was huge and powerful, it was also not as nimble as the smaller and quicker great white
19:45sharks.
19:46Researchers believe that great whites actually rivaled with the Megalodon for food,
19:51and were often more successful hunters thanks to their agility.
19:56They couldn't fight the Meg openly, but were fast enough to steal its food.
20:00So, the only food left for the Megalodon were whales and equally big marine animals.
20:06Adult Megs could easily catch such beasts, but their offspring were much smaller and more vulnerable than their parents.
20:14Scientists believe other sharks could have used this to their advantage.
20:18While the Megalodon was still little, it often became a meal for great whites, bull, and tiger sharks.
20:25Even then, a great white shark could be almost 20 feet long, while a Megalodon pup was typically twice as
20:32small.
20:32A pretty easy meal for a great white.
20:35But even if there had been no open confrontation between young Megalodons and smaller adult sharks,
20:41Meg pups wouldn't have been able to find food for themselves to grow to adulthood.
20:45The population of other sharks was growing, and they were rivaling with each other and the Megs for food.
20:52The more great whites and other sharks there were, the less food remained for the young monster sharks.
20:58Eventually, they would have simply starved.
21:01As if this wasn't enough for the Megalodon to cease to exist, their favorite big munch, the whales, began to
21:08adapt to changing conditions on Earth.
21:10The Meg was a warmth-loving shark, and it was abundant in tropical and subtropical waters.
21:17When they first evolved about 20 million years ago, the climate on the planet was much milder.
21:23Both land and seas were generally warmer, and so the Meg could swim and eat wherever it pleased.
21:29As years went by, the climate went on changing, though.
21:33It became extremely cold closer to the poles, and lots of marine animals and fish had to adapt to this
21:40temperature shift.
21:41But the Megalodon didn't cope as well.
21:43It still loved warm waters, so it stayed where it felt comfortable, even if that area was shrinking.
21:50What it didn't realize was that whales were among those who became okay with the cold.
21:55The big marine mammals went further north, and Meg was left without a supper.