Great white sharks may have helped drive megalodons to extinction

Analyzing shark teeth hints that the two ocean hunters competed for food

illustration of megalodon about to eat a pod of toothed whales

Ancient shark teeth suggest that megalodons (shown in this artist’s illustration) and great whites munched on the same types of marine mammals.

Corey Ford/Stocktrek Images/Science Source

For millions of years, megalodon sharks were top ocean predators — and then came the great whites.