This is no joke. We honestly thought it was too until we came across this article on BBC News yesterday.
If you haven’t already heard of the Megalodon, let us explain. It was an ancient shark that was thought to grow up to 20m long. Just to put that in perspective, that’s over five times the size of a regular great white shark, roughly the size of a lorry…
A new study believes the Megalodon became extinct (thankfully) around 2.6 million years ago, because the size of the baleen whale – one primary source of food for the sharks – increased dramatically after this time.
The biggest animal on earth – the Blue Whale – is part of the baleen whale family which goes to show exactly how ginormous these sharks grew in size.
It’s definitely got an element of Sharknado to it, don’t you think?
Marine biologist Catalina Pimiento who co-wrote the study told the BBC: “When we found out when that happened, we noticed it coincided with the pattern mentioned in whales. Now we need to find out if one event – Megalodon’s extinction – caused the other – evolution of gigantism in whales.”
Pretty interesting, no?
Fossils of the Megalodon have been found, just to show exactly how large these beasts would have been… It’s definitely got an element of Sharknado to it, don’t you think?
