Great white sharks likely pushed the massive megalodon to extinction

Taking a dip in the ocean and coming face to face with a predator of the deep would be enough to scare anyone. Modern day great white sharks are intimidating creatures, but they wouldn’t have held a candle to the ancient super-sized beast known as megalodon.

The long-extinct shark has been the subject of many research efforts in the past, with scientists attempting to determine when and where it lived, and perhaps even figure out why it’s no longer around. Now, new fossil evidence suggests that the colossal creature actually died off quite a bit earlier than was originally thought, and great white sharks might have been to blame.

“Climate change probably did off meglodeon; yeah, that’s it .”

You’re not far from wrong. Science can prove that megalodon had become extinct by the end of the Pliocene (2.6 million years ago), when the planet entered a phase of global cooling. Precisely when the last megalodon died is not known, but new evidence suggests that it was at least 3.6 million years ago.

Scientists think that up to a third of all large marine animals, including 43% of turtles and 35% of sea birds, became extinct as temperatures cooled and the number of organisms at the base of the food chain plummeted, resulting in a knock-on effect to the predators at the top.

The cooling of the planet may have contributed to the extinction of the megalodon in a number of ways.

As the adult sharks were dependent on tropical waters, the drop in ocean temperatures likely resulted in a significant loss of habitat. It may also have resulted in the megalodon’s prey either going extinct or adapting to the cooler waters and moving to where the sharks could not follow.

Additionally, megalodon is also thought to have given birth to its young close to the shore. These shallow coastal waters would have provided a nursery for the pups, protecting them from predators that were lurking in the open water, like the larger toothed whales. As ice formed at the poles and the sea level dropped, these pupping grounds would have been destroyed.

So it could most like be a lot more than the competing other sharks were the only reason for the extinction.

rwood

“I meant man made Climate Change, duh.”

Be careful what you read as that is most of what we have to work with. Man is no more responsible for climate change than any other matter on this little rock. It all is part of the ecosystem that was around long before man’s footprint hit the sand. And it will be evolving long after we aren’t around to evolve with it.

The only difference in determining climate change is that we now have the tools to interpret, or misinterpret, scientific assumptions the owner calls a theory based upon information that may or may not be correct and determining how much money he wants to make on the book that comes out. So “scientists” are practicing their trade just the same as MD’s. And this is why the latter carries malpractice insurance.

rwood

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