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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

What did megalodon the mega-toothed shark eat? Anything it wanted

These extinct uber-predators occupied an ecological niche that has no known equivalent in the modern ocean.
Fossil megalodon tooth collected in North Carolina, filling an adult hand as it is very large.

This megalodon tooth illustrates the size and fearsomeness of these ancient predators of the seas. Credit: Harry Maisch

Megalodon, one of the largest carnivores ever to have lived, feasted on the flesh of other top predators, according to a chemical analysis of the extinct shark’s teeth1.

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Nature 606, 843 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01701-3

References

  1. Kast, E. R. et al. Sci. Adv. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abl6529 (2022).

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