The mighty megalodon keeps its crown as one of the largest sharks to have ever lived. It was an apex predator of prehistory, reigning the seas and raining teeth on ocean floors, until its ultimate extinction around a couple million years ago.
Despite having died out far before any of our lifetimes, megalodons manage to live on, swimming and zipping through the depths of our fantastical imaginations. Here’s what to know about this ancient superpredator, who dwarfs today’s great whites and killer whales.
Megalodon Facts: What Is a Megalodon?
The megalodon, an ancient and colossal shark species, has long been a subject of fascination in both scientific research and popular culture. You might imagine a megalodon, one of the largest sharks ever to exist, to look like the gigantic version of a great white shark, but the two species actually descend from different lineages – megalodons being the last of the now extinct lineage of megatooth sharks.
