Megalodon may have been higher up the food chain than any modern shark

Carissa Wong is a person.

Megalodon and other sharks may have eaten other sharks in order to occupy a high spot in the food web.

There is a good chance that megatooth sharks were at a higher trophic level.

A group of people made the discovery by looking at shark teeth. Nitrogen-15 and nitrogen-14 can be found in animal tissue. Animal tissue is usually richer in nitrogen-15 than it would be otherwise.

The flesh of an animal is richer in nitrogen-15 when it is eaten. As the predator excretes nitrogen-14, the nitrogen-15 signal is incorporated into the predator's own flesh. The nitrogen-15 signal will be incorporated into the second predator's tissues. The ratio of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14 in fossils can be used to estimate how high a food web an ancient animal would have been.

The nitrogen ratios in the tooth material were analysed by the team. The Otodus auriculatus was 3.5 metres long and the Otodus megalodon was 15 metres long.

The researchers measured the nitrogen isotope ratio in samples from existing marine mammals as well as from modern sharks, including the great white.

The mega tooth sharks had the highest nitrogen ratios. This is the highest nitrogen ratio values we have ever seen. "We expected high values but not this high."

The results show that mega tooth sharks were at the top of the food web, and that they ate other sharks as well.

The sharks ate different types of animals. The nitrogen isotope ratios in existing marine mammals weren't high enough to account for the high nitrogen-15 levels found in the mega tooth fossils It's possible to explain the signal if megatooth sharks ate smaller sharks.

According to the results, megatooth sharks made this shift to eat other predator early in their evolution, when they were relatively small animals.

This is really interesting according to the person. The huge size of the megatoothed sharks was not necessary for them to reach the top of the food web.

Understanding the evolution and behavior of sharks can help us understand how past climate events affected the marine environment. Looking at the past can help guide us in protecting life in the future.

The great white shark is thought to have occupied a lower position in the food web than the megalodon. This study uses a larger sample size and uses cutting-edge methodologies to support the hypothesis.

Science Advances was published in the journal.

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