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Zinc Analysis Reveals Megalodon's Broad, Opportunistic Diet
- Researchers led by Jeremy McCormack from Goethe University Frankfurt studied Otodus megalodon's diet using fossilized teeth and zinc isotopes in 2025.
- This study challenges previous views that megalodon fed mainly on whales by revealing a more flexible diet influenced by prey availability.
- The analysis showed megalodon hunted various prey including marine mammals and large fish, with zinc levels indicating no strict top-tier specialization.
- McCormack explained that their research portrays megalodon as a flexible predator capable of thriving in diverse ecological roles, while Shimada highlighted that the findings provide valuable understanding of how even apex predators like supercarnivores face the threat of extinction.
- The findings suggest megalodon's broad diet and opportunistic feeding may have helped it dominate oceans for millions of years before extinction about 3.6 million years ago.
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52 Articles
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New research reveals mighty megalodon’s massive appetite
The largest predatory fish in Earth’s history had a "broad diet".
Megalodon Shark’s Diet Revealed, and It’s Not What Scientists Thought
For years, the megalodon has been painted as a massive predator built as one thing—an ancient shark built to take down whales. But new research shows that this prehistoric giant may have been way less picky than we thought. Despite the hype, megalodon wasn’t a specialized whale killer—it was a generalist, snacking on whatever the ocean offered. In a study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, scientists analyzed zinc isotopes in foss…
Megalodons have been known by science since the 1840s thanks to their huge fossilized triangular teeth. The name "megalodon" means "big tooth" in ancient Greek. And this is because it has been proven that some were more than 16 centimeters long. By comparison, the teeth of the great white shark reach at most 7.5 centimeters. To know how large megalodons were, it would be necessary to have a complete skeleton, but since it is a type of cartilage …
What Fueled the Ocean’s Largest Terror
The megalodon shark is popular quarry of cryptozoologists, who speculate about the legendary creature’s persistence in our oceans. Now scientists have given the extinct shark new life with revelations about its own ancient quarries. The largest fish to ever live, Otodus megalodon (which, yes, did go extinct 3.6 million years ago) was “a transoceanic super-predator” that could grow to some 80 feet long—and swim faster than many of the fastest fis…
Megalodon was the biggest predatory fish that ever existed – even whales fell victim to it. Researchers from Frankfurt have now discovered something new about his eating habits.
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