The two shark species, which once coexisted, likely hunted some of the same prey. This competition could potentially have been one reason why the 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) megalodon went extinct…
Tooth size comparison between extinct Early Pliocene Otodus megalodon tooth and a modern great white shark.Megalodon, the giant shark that lived more than 23 million years ago and was inspiration for the movie “The Meg,” was almost four times bigger than the great white shark that cruises our oceans today.
To arrive at this finding, the researchers involved in the study used a new technique. They analyzed dietary signatures contained in the teeth of 13 extinct shark species and 20 modern sharks to understand where they fit in the food chain — also known as their trophic level. “Our new study shows that the dietary range of the early Pliocene great white shark is very similar to that of megalodon, indicating that our data do not contradict the competition hypothesis,” he said via email.
Zinc is essential for living organisms and plays a crucial role in bone development. The ratio of heavy and light zinc isotopes in the teeth preserves a record of the kind of animal matter that the sharks ate.
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