Small creature causes terrible toothache for super shark Megalodon

06/02/2022 09:45 GMT+7

Megalodon is known mainly in the fossil record for its massive teeth that last for millions of years. It is from the giant teeth, the size of your hand, that scientists estimate the size of the giant monster.

Small creature causes terrible toothache for super shark Megalodon

The great super shark has almost no enemies in the wild, which dominated the seas millions of years ago, known for its huge sharp teeth, which help increase efficiency when hunting. However, even this fearsome carnivorous fish in the ocean is not immune to tooth damage.

Scientists discovered a rare wound on a Megalodon shark’s teeth that causes terrible pain to it. A deformed Megalodon tooth suggests an injury that may have weakened its structure.

Analysis of the tooth had a groove running downhill, which is a rare anomaly that suggests the deformity may have originated from a giant shark’s jaw injury during hunting.

It is likely an ancient swordfish with a long sharp proboscis or a stingray that pierced the spine. The injury caused Megalodon’s teeth to split in half or grow more teeth right next to them. The encounter that damaged the megalodon tooth affected how the sharks hunted and fed.

The researchers analyzed a 10-centimeter-long tooth from a large shark at least 15 meters long. Meanwhile, great white sharks of the day nya are usually no more than 6 meters long.

Megalodon had a skeleton made of cartilage, was not as strong as bone, and usually did not fossilize well, so most of the megalodon fossils that have survived to date are teeth.

It is constantly shedding and growing new teeth, having a constant supply of regeneration stored in the jaws. It is estimated that the super shark had a total of about 40,000 teeth before dying. A Megalodon always has more than 270 teeth in its mouth at any given time.

In May 2022, Sammy Shelton, 6 years old, happened to find a rare fossil of a megalodon shark tooth, estimated to be about 3 million years old while walking on Suffolk beach, England. The giant tooth is about 10 cm in size. The shark’s teeth were found on every continent except Antarctica, researchers say.

Hoang Dung (synopsis)