As of yet, no one has seen a Megalodon, also known as a Megatooth shark, which reportedly went extinct around 2.58 million years ago, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Fossil remains of megalodon have been found in shallow tropical and temperate seas along the coastlines and continental shelf regions of all continents except Antarctica.
Why did megalodon go extinct? We know that megalodon had become extinct by the end of the Pliocene (2.6 million years ago), when the planet entered a phase of global cooling. Precisely when the last megalodon died is not known, but new evidence suggests that it was at least 3.6 million years ago.
Internet rumors persist that modern-day megalodons exist – that they still swim around in today's oceans. But that's not true. Megalodons are extinct. They died out about 3.5 million years ago.
Megalodon is NOT alive today, it went extinct around 3.5 million years ago.
A study of the ocean giant's fossil teeth suggests it had to compete for food with another ferocious predator, the great white shark. The battle for diminishing stocks of whales and other prey may have pushed the megalodon to extinction three million years ago.
It has been thought that megalodon became extinct around the end of the Pliocene, about 2.6 Mya; claims of Pleistocene megalodon teeth, younger than 2.6 million years old, are considered unreliable. A 2019 assessment moves the extinction date back to earlier in the Pliocene, 3.6 Mya.
Whale shark: The biggest specimen ever reliably measured was 18.8 metres or nearly 62 feet long – that's bigger than a school bus!
His largest monster, a 17-foot Great White Shark weighing 3,427 pounds, in some record books still remains the largest fish ever caught by rod and reel. Mundus moved to Montauk from New Jersey in 1951 to pursue a career catching groundfish (Striped Bass, Black Seabass, Bluefish etc).
The Megalodon weighs in at upwards of 50-70 tons, measuring a span of up to 60-70 feet in length. By contrast, the Blue Whale tips the scale at around 100-110 tons and tops lengths of up to 100 feet. Who Wins on Size? It's pretty obvious that the Blue Whale is the bigger apex predator in this fight.
Leedsichthys problematicus, meaning "Alfred Leed's problem-causing fish", was another prehistoric ocean giant. Estimates put Leedsichthys at approximately 16.5m long, substantially larger than the average Megalodon.
The blue whale is the biggest living being alive today and it is far larger than any megalodon. The blue whale can grow upwards of 100 feet long and weighs more than 110 tons.
But sadly for shark lovers, the megalodon is not back. The 'Meg' slowly changed shape as a school of mackerel moved around, according to the researchers.
The deep ocean is too cold for them to survive. Megalodons were extremely large animals that ate other extremely large animals. Nothing big enough or numerous enough to sustain them lives in the Mariana Trench.
Worlds Largest Megalodon Teeth
It was found in the desert of Ocucaje, Peru.
The largest great white recognized by the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) is one caught by Alf Dean in southern Australian waters in 1959, weighing 1,208 kg (2,663 lb).
The great white shark has killed the most humans resulting in 52 known fatalities, though roughly 300 unprovoked attacks are recorded from the great white.
Tiger Shark
Tiger Sharks can be found along the waters of the eastern, western, and northern coast of Australia. Tiger Sharks are very large sharks that grow between 10 and 13 ft (3.25-4.25 m) and weigh around 849-1,400 lb (385-635 kg).
Human Encounters. Because of these characteristics, many experts consider bull sharks to be the most dangerous sharks in the world. Historically, they are joined by their more famous cousins, great whites and tiger sharks, as the three species most likely to attack humans.
While Deep Blue may be one of the largest fish in the ocean, these creatures can still be elusive and NOAA estimates a great white shark lifespan to be around 30-70 years so there's every chance Deep Blue is still alive and well in the ocean to this day.
The people in this YouTube Short claim they believe the giant shark they encounter is 30 feet long! If they're right, they've just met the longest great white in the world. So far, research shows a famous white shark called Deep Blue as holding the title for the largest great white.
The world's biggest shark Megalodon might have been killed off by the Great White, scientists have revealed. Megalodon faced competition for food from its smaller and nimbler rival, the researchers found. The prehistoric shark lived between 3.6 million and 23 million years ago and were known for their enormous teeth.
In research recently published(opens in a new tab) in the science journal Nature Communications, earth scientists and biologists found preserved chemical evidence (in fossilized teeth) that megalodons and great white sharks coexisted as apex predators near the end of the megalodon's reign, some 5.3 to 3.6 million years ...
Some megalodons are estimated to have been much larger―as long as 50 feet. Using the data from this study, together with previous research, the researchers concluded that the potential lifespan of megalodons was 88-100 years. Megalodons were over six feet long when they were born.