By Jake Buehler
The largest shark discovered to date — the monstrous Otodus megalodon — may have been a sleek, long-bodied leviathan.
A fresh look at the extinct predator’s fossilized remains suggests its body was many meters longer and possibly more slender than previous reconstructions, researchers report January 22 in Palaeontologia Electronica. The findings may offer better insights into the biology and lifestyle of megalodon, including how fast it swam or what it ate (SN: 6/27/23).
Reconstructing what ancient, extinct animals looked like when they were alive is challenging, even when complete fossilized remains are available. But reconstructing megalodon is much harder. Like all sharks, the giant had a cartilaginous skeleton that preserves poorly relative to bone. It is mostly known from teeth and many meters of fossilized, cartilaginous vertebrae, with the rest of the skeleton remaining a mystery.