Megalodon is an extinct species of shark that lived approximately 15.9 to 2.6 million years earlier, during the Cenozoic Period (center Miocene to end of Pliocene).
The taxonomic assignment of C. megalodon has actually been disputed for nearly a century, and is still under dispute. Both significant interpretations are Carcharodon megalodon (under family members Lamnidae) or Carcharocles megalodon (under the family members Otodontidae). The medical name of this species is frequently shortened C. megalodon in the literature.
C. megalodon is considereded among the biggest and also most powerful predators in vertebrate history, and also likely had a profound influence on the framework of aquatic neighborhoods. Fossil remains recommend that this gigantic shark got to a maximum length of 18 metres (59 feet), and likewise affirm that it had a cosmopolitan distribution. Experts suggest that C. megalodon appeared like a stockier variation of the great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias.
Mexico's 60 foot Black Demon Shark
According to Renaissance accounts, gigantic, triangular fossil teeth commonly discovered embedded in rocky buildups were when thought to be the petrified tongues, or glossopetrae, of snakes and dragons. This analysis was fixed in 1667 by Danish biologist Nicolaus Steno, that acknowledged them as shark teeth, as well as famously generated a depiction of a shark's head birthing such teeth. He explained his searchings for in guide The Head of a Shark Dissected, which likewise consisted of an illustration of a C. megalodon tooth.
Swiss conservationist Louis Agassiz offered the shark its initial scientific name, Carcharodon megalodon, in 1835, in his study job Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (Research on fossil fish), which he finished in 1843. While the clinical name is C. megalodon, it is frequently informally referred to the "megatooth shark", "large white shark" or "monster shark".
Ciampaglio claimed that dental resemblances between megalodon and the great white are superficial with noticeable morphometric differences in between them, and also that these findings are sufficient to require a separate genus. With regard to the current dispute regarding fossil lamnid shark partnerships, overall morphology-- specifically the interior calcification patterns-- of the great white shark vertebral centra have been compared to well-preserved fossil centra from the megatooth, including megalodon and C. angustidens.
Gottfried and Fordyce explained that some great white shark fossils are around 16 million years of ages and predate the transitional Pliocene fossils. Furthermore the Oligocene megalodon records oppose the pointer that C. chubutensis is the immediate ancestor of C. megalodon.
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