Why did Megalodon go extinct? - Jack Cooper and Catalina Pimiento

Dive into the ocean’s depths to see how the gigantic megalodon ruled the seas, and find out what caused its extinction.

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20 million years ago, the ocean housed a creature so colossal that its stomach could reach volumes of almost 10,000 liters— big enough to fit an entire orca. It was the megalodon, the biggest shark to ever live. So, what was it like when megalodon ruled the seas? And what brought this formidable predator to extinction? Jack Cooper and Catalina Pimiento investigate.

Lesson by Jack Cooper and Catalina Pimiento, directed by Vitalii Nebelskyi, and action creative agency.

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Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Michel-Ange Hortegat, Enes Kirimi, Amaury BISIAUX, ND, Samyogita Hardikar, Vanessa Graulich, Vandana Gunwani, Abdulmohsin Almadi, AJ Lyon, Geoffrey Bultitude, Mi Mi, Thomas Rothert, Brian Elieson, Oge O, Weronika Falkowska, Nevin Spoljaric, Sid Chanpuriya, Anoop Varghese, David Yastremski, Noah Webb, Roberto Chena, Oliver Koo, Luke Pisano, Andrea Gordon, Aleksandar Donev, Nicole Klau Ibarra, Jesse Lira, Ezekiel Raui, Petr Vacek, Dennis, Olivia Fu, Kari Teffeau, Cindy Lai, Rajath Durgada Manjunath, Dan Nguyen, Chin Beng Tan, Tom Boman, Karen Warner, Iryna Panasiuk, Aaron Torres, Eric Braun, Sonja Worzewski, Michael Clement, Adam Berry, Ghaith Tarawneh, Nathan Milford, Tomas Beckett, Alice Ice, Eric Berman and Kurt Paolo Sevillano.

[JesusMartinez-rrry]

How unfortunate for Megalodon to have one of the contributing factors of its extinction basically being a miniature version of itself.

[SomeoneNews]

Respect of the person who made the thumbnail it's adorable

[paleoph]

For those wondering who the Danish scientist mentioned in the intro is, he is Nicolas Steno. He did empirical, unbiased research which lead to the development of geology. Ted Ed has a video on him.

[mhdfrb]

Megalodon has captured people's imagination for years and there's something intriguing about the idea of such a massive and powerful creature still roaming the depths of the ocean.

[Xenomrph]

Everyone knows that not only is the megalodon not extinct, but Jason Statham battles them daily to keep us safe (as shown in the documentary ‘The Meg’). Thank god for his noble actions.

[sophiaisabelle]

We learn so many significant thoughts and knowledge from this channel. They’ve been the best.

[justwaiting]

This music is just perfect
And this is the first time I've seen a huggable megalodon.

[KnowledgeSpree]

Being so massive makes it much harder to adapt to rapid climate changes. Megalodons have been such a terrifying creatures and yet fragile in terms of survivability. If they were still here would have been scary though...

[KingKong-dqkj]

As someone who's favorite animals are sharks (hence the profile picture), seeing you guys talk about the meg is an unexpected, yet definitly welcome surprise.

[kev]

Sounds awful that megalodon became a victim of its massive bulk and high-calorie demand metabolism. I also read an article that suggested its prey, mainly migratory whales, were able to travel to the poles due to their insulating blubber. Megalodon wasn't able to regulate its body temperature efficiently enough to follow, which partially led to its extinction due to the abscence of prey.

[bumblebee]

Ted ed never disappoints on the animation 😅

[lifeinbyzantium]

no matter how many times you learn about the Megalodon, they will always impress you.

[wulansawitri]

this is amazing! i never thought about the reason behind megalodon's extinct and here the video gives the answer to me! the animation is super well done as always, but I want to applaud for the word selection that has been used in this video!! i enjoy it to the max!! amazing job as always❤

[mine_neko]

I can't thank you enough!!! TEDEd team ❤ always so on point 🤗 I'm definitely going with more research about Megalodon ~

[inesjimenezdelgado]

I love the illustrations and animation work on this video. I find it superb! 🤩 Thanks for the hard work.

[pkshabbaboy]

They went extinct due to the changes in water temperature as they survived in warmer water so as time went by the water went cold

[Brisingr]

I loved the narration! It made me feel like I was in some cheesy old detective show; a perfect fit for such a video

[Christianmingle]

I love the idea of shark week on TEDed❤

[dhruvchauhan]

Imagine being such a predator that your extinction causes disturbance in the GLOBAL food chain and your prey species MULTIPLY in size and number. Man, what days they must've been! Wandering in the cetacean oceans. I wish they make a hyper realistic 3d vr game about it.

[kenguyii]

*Qui-Gon Jinn: There’s always a bigger fish.*
*Me: There’s always a bigger shark!*