Temporal range: Pliocene – Pleistocene |Model of the jaws of the
megalodon at the American Museum of Natural History| This giant
of a shark was a huge version of the current great white
shark,Carcharodon carcharias. Megalodon had teeth, which are
among the largest ever found, over 7 inches (18 cm) long.
Nicolaus Steno was the first to recognise the teeth as those of
a giant shark. The shark was up to 52 feet long (16 meters) and
weigh over 60 tons. The skeleton of a Megalodon was made of
cartilage, so it will be impossible to find complete remains of
these animals. Megalodon teeth, however were bone and can be
found in all oceans, which shows that the sharks were all over
the world. Other remains found are vertebrae, but these are very
unusual fossils. Fossil records of C. megalodon indicate that it
occurred in subtropical to temperate latitudes. Before the
formation of the Isthmus of Panama, the seas were relatively
warmer. This would have made it possible for the species to live
in all the oceans of the wor