The Megalodon, A Prehistoric Giant Shark That Ruled the Seven Seas

Jason Statham's 2018 movie may be a work of fiction, but there is a real-life monster behind The Meg: the 60-foot-long prehistoric sea creature known as the Megalodon. The movie paints the shark-like monster as something that still lives in the ocean, but this apex predator likely died out millions and millions of years ago - or did it?

#megalodon #themeg #weirdhistory

[akuma_killereva]

I’ve found a megalodon tooth before and they are often found where I live. It’s crazy to think that they used to swim where we walk now

[joshuabradshaw]

The fact that they preferred warm shallow water and they often preyed on whales shows to me that they don't exist anymore. If they did we would witness them preying on whales in the tropics. A shark that big needs a lot of food and if they prefer staying closer to shore we should have many confirmed sightings by now.

[bkjeong]

Before someone else mentions this in the comments: the idea megalodon got outcompeted by predatory whales like Livyatan or orcas ignores several major issues.

- Livyatan actually went extinct somewhat before megalodon did (it went extinct 5MYA, while megalodon hung on until almost 3MYA), as did other raptorial sperm whales. Raptorial sperm whales weren’t a new group of competitors, but old rivals the shark had coexisted with for tens of millions of years and even outlasted.

- orcas didn’t become big-game hunters until after things like megalodon and Livyatan were extinct; ancestral orcas were not only much smaller than living orcas, they had much smaller and more delicate jaws and teeth, meaning that they were physically incapable of killing larger animals even in groups (they were similar to smaller living dolphins in this regard) and thus posed no significant threat or competition even for newborn megalodon. In fact, it’s likely that orcas ended up where they are now specifically because megalodon and Livyatan bit the dust and left the apex predator niche for the taking (which is yet another serious argument against megalodon still being around). And even disregarding all that, megalodon coexisted just fine with orca-sized (and much larger, in the case of Livyatan) raptorial sperm whales just fine for most of its existence without getting wiped out, so it would likely have been able to handle competition from actual orcas even if it had ever faced that problem in the first place.

[ebogar]

I found a tooth of one of these in a creek, that was in a valley of the Appalachian mountains. I'm still confused on how it got there. I still have it. It's not the largest one I've seen, but it's pretty big.

[nathaniellippert]

I think he meant 40, 000 pounds of pressure for its bite force, 4, 000 is the estimated strength of a great whites bite

[btetschner]

A video about caveman art would be awesome!

[tmn]

I'd love it if you did a story on the prehistoric sloth !! 😆👍

[davidlancaster]

Less is known about the ocean than the moon. Anything could be down in the depths. Idk about Megalodon but there's plenty of lethal creatures in the seas.

[ethanol]

5:33 the idea of the moon having teeth is infinitely more terrifying than a 60 feet long shark

[sterlingnilssen]

This is weird history? Megalodons aren't weird, they're cool as hell.

[michaelsantillo]

Best Line in the whole video

“For all we know, It had a mullet”

😂😂😂😂

[VideoClam]

I’ve held a megalodon’s tooth in my hand, it was about the size of a dinner plate.

[christaverduren]

Ancient giant bats? Desmodus draculae is an extinct species of vampire bat that inhabited Central and South America during the Pleistocene, and possibly the early Holocene... let's see that!

[NewMessage]

I'd be more afraid of his dentist.

[scientist]

Im a shark expert and can confirm Megaladon's had mullets

[CrazyUncleChris]

Imagine a shark the size of a semi truck.
The whole truck and trailer.

[michaeldouglas]

This was great, I have always fascinated about megladons

[carterzealand]

this has been my favorite niche topic since i was a kid *insert elmo in front of flames gif*

[NotTheNine]

Hahahaha using Dvorak's 9th instead of the Jaws music 😂😂😂😂 beautiful

[NaNa-jbq]

How bizarre i just watched the Meg yesterday!im a big dinosaur fan!!nice video!!