Millions of years ago whales were hunted in the sea.
Some 20 to 3.6 million years ago, megalodons were the leading ocean predator. Scientists have unearthed fascinating evidence of a predatory event that the marine legends may have had. Fossil clues show that a small whale was attacked by a large shark.
Stephen Godfrey, the Curator of Paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland, said that a megalodon attack would have spelled doom. The research was published in the journal.
The megalodons' jaws were large enough to swallow multiple humans at once. Over the course of their lives, the jaws held over two hundred teeth. That's the reason why fossils are so common. I have a book on my shelf. An animal with a lot of teeth can bite at will. They can get rid of their teeth on their own.
"To have been on the receiving end of a megalodon attack would have spelled almost certain doom."
Killer whales probably come close to megalodon's predatory behavior, but I see it as being violent and almost without parallel. If you don't care about breaking your teeth during an attack, you're a predator.
The whale that was recently uncovered probably survived a violent attack by megalodons. For a few months or so.
An artist's conception of the megalodon attacking a whale, a possible scenario in which the shark fractured the whale's vertebrae. Credit: Art by Clarence (Shoe) Schumaker / Image courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum
The 15 million-year-old fossils were found by Mike Ellwood, a fossil collector. The tooth was found near a whale fossil.
The tooth had a chip that could have been caused by impact with bone.
One of the vertebrae had evidence of a broken bone. The broken bone and how it was altered were confirmed by aCT scans. Something caused the whale's spine to curve unnaturally and rammed one of the bones into the other. The force caused the front end to break off. The research stated that the injury would have been painful for the whale.
From the severity of the broken bone, there is a good chance that it is a meGalodon attack. As shown in the graphic above, the whale could have been badly damaged by the encounter. The bite would have come from a megalodon that was at least 20 feet long. They were 60 feet tall.
It caused such damage to the whale.
The chipped megalodon tooth found next to the fractured whale vertebrae. Credit: Image courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum
The whale vertebra that was majorly broken before fossilization. Credit: Image courtesy of the Calvert Marine Museum
There are other possible causes of the damaged spine. It is possible that the whale had a seizure and convulsions after being exposed to toxic blooms. It's1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556
"It does strongly suggest that the trauma may have been caused by the high impact bite of a megalodon shark, despite the fact that a megalodon tooth was found with the back of the neck," Phil said. The researcher who did not have a role in the new research has published research on sharks.
The whale was not killed immediately by the bite. There were some bones that broke off. The animal lived for a couple of months. Prehistoric scavengers almost certainly fed on this whale.
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It's more evidence that the megalodon was an apex predator in the ocean if it fractured the whale's spine. The food chain was dominated by it.
This species went extinct 3.6 million years ago. If food became scarce, the great white shark might have been able to beat the megalodon. The megalodon did not last as long as the whales did.
Another whale superpredator looms large. It's us. Many whale populations have been decimated by us. We often hit them with ships. Large whales are at risk and still recovering from whaling. Less than 2000 blue whales are estimated to remain, according to the New Zealand Department ofConservation. Less than five percent of fin whales and 10 to 20 percent of the Humpback and sei whales are present. Only a small number of southern right whales remain.
We can reduce the loss of whale populations by no longer hunting whales and by avoiding ship strikes. I fear for the survival of whales because we have taken the place of megalodon as the new marine macropredator.
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