• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Ancient Megalodons May Have Dueled One Another With Their Teeth

February 14, 2025 by Deborah Bloomfield

Some fossilized teeth from giant ancient megalodon sharks have unique scratches on them. These scratches, researchers believe, were possibly caused by the serrated cutting edge of other megalodon teeth, suggesting that these prehistoric leviathans may have spared with one another.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

Many people have probably heard of megalodon (Otodus megalodon) by this point, given the success of The Meg and Meg 2: The Trench. These enormous predators, which were thought to grow to around 19.8 meters (65 feet) in length, roamed the world’s oceans until they went extinct around 3.6 million years ago. 

Because of the success of this Hollywood depiction, megalodon is often thought to have resembled a giant great white shark, but recent research has shown that it was likely less chunky and more elongated – more like a carrot than a potato. Recent research has also suggested that Meg was possibly warm-blooded as well, which may have contributed to its eventual extinction. 

It seems we are now learning more and more about how this incredible species lived and, according to a new study, how they may have interacted.

According to a short report, some fossilized megalodon teeth have marks on them that could have only been produced by other sharks.  

Megalodon teeth are the largest shark teeth ever found and have sharp serrated edges. So when these sharks bit marine mammals, such as whales, their teeth left distinct marks in their bones. Researchers found evidence of the same marks on four megalodon teeth recovered from fossil sites in North and South Carolina.

One of these teeth has scratch marks that are perpendicular in relation to its length, which could not have been produced accidentally by a shark biting in a way that damaged its own teeth.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

“We do not know under what circumstances any of the O. megalodon teeth described herein came to be marked by another O. megalodon tooth. One might imagine that the simplest way to account for O. megalodon-bitten O. megalodon teeth would be that two teeth in opposing jaws struck each other during occlusion, the serrated cutting edge of one marking the other”, the team wrote.

“However, in lamniform sharks [of which megalodon belonged], the upper jaw protrudes beyond the lower jaw to such an extent that this would be unlikely.”

The team raise various possible explanations for how these teeth may have been marked. Firstly, the teeth may have remained in the shark’s mouth after being dislodged. In this situation, the dislodged teeth could have then been struck and marked by an “in situ occluding tooth”.

“Some extant shark species will ingest their own teeth, possibly unintentionally or as an intentional means of recycling the calcium phosphate”, the team explained.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

Another explanation is that teeth were marked by the same animal after it bit into its prey. It is possible the teeth became dislodged in the flesh of its meal, and then its own teeth scratched up against the ones it lost.

But the final possibility is the most intriguing: were megalodons fighting one another with their teeth?

“[W]e envision the possibility of an antagonistic encounter between two O. megalodon, perhaps during a territorial dispute to establish a feeding hierarchy, a feeding frenzy, over mating rights, simple aggression, or during the act of cannibalism, either from active predation or scavenging, in which one individual forcefully bit the jaws of its rival […] marking the receiving tooth as part of that episode”, the team say.

The authors note that great white sharks will engage in jaw-to-jaw aggression that may be the result of territorial aggression or mating disputes.

ADVERTISEMENT GO AD FREE

“While this behavior is not well documented in the published literature, footage of this behavior has been captured, including in the National Geographic documentary ‘Cannibal Sharks’”, they add.

So while it may not be possible to say for certain what caused these unusual marks, their existence possibly represents a variety of behaviors that are worthy of additional study regarding the life and ecology of these epic monsters.

The paper is published in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

[H/T New Scientist]

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. GM invests in radar software startup Oculii as demand for automated driving features rise
  2. S&P raises Braskem-Idesa’s rating after deal with Pemex
  3. You Could One Day Wear Hearing Aids In Your Mouth Thanks To Dental Implant Technology
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: Ancient Megalodons May Have Dueled One Another With Their Teeth

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Scientists Perplexed By 407-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Plant That Doesn’t Follow The Fibonacci Sequence
  • This Giant Goldfish Hybrid Weighs As Much As A 10-Year-Old – A Stark Warning About Dumping Pets
  • Scientists Gave Mice Neanderthal And Denisovan Genes. The Results Were Intriguing
  • 2024 Saw Higher Levels Of Carbon Dioxide In The Atmosphere Than Ever Before
  • Halloween Fireballs Will Grace Our Skies As The Taurid Meteor Showers Arrive
  • Newly Discovered Hunting Megastructures Suggest Pre-Bronze Age Societies More Sophisticated Than Previously Thought
  • What Is Spectroscopy And Why Is It So Important To Science?
  • Parkinson’s “Trigger” Seen For The First Time: Scientists Image The Toxic Molecules Inside The Human Brain
  • What Flying Animals Exist That Are Not Birds?
  • DNA Evidence Uncovers Surprising Origins Of Native Americans
  • Single Gene Swap “Transfers A Behavior” Between Two Species For The First Time
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS Has A Rare “Anti-Tail”, New Observations Confirm
  • Asteroid Apophis: Animation Shows Asteroid’s Nail-Biting Close Approach To Earth In 2029
  • Titan Breaks A Key Chemistry Rule: What That Means For Alien Life
  • Scientists Studied “Chicago Rat Hole” – They Have Bad News, The South Atlantic’s Magnetic Field Weak Spot Is Growing, And Much More This Week
  • Could This Be The Real Reason Humans Survived And Neanderthals Died Out?
  • Newly Discovered Snail Species Named After Studio Ghibli Co-Founder Is A Hairy Beauty
  • 2025 SC79 Is The Second-Fastest Asteroid Ever Found – And Only The Second Within Venus’ Orbit
  • When Red Devil Spiders Arrived On A New Island, Their Genome Dramatically Shrank In Half
  • Is This The World’s Oldest Story? Ancient Human Tale About The Seven Sisters May Be From 100,000 BCE
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version