AI Insight
A set of large vertebrae from Otodus megalodon, the extinct megatooth shark, has been rediscovered after being missing since the 1980s. The specimen, analyzed by an international team of researchers from Denmark, the United States, and Australia, provides confirmation of previous size estimates suggesting the shark reached approximately 80 feet in length. The vertebrae also offer new insights into the lifestyle and biology of this massive predator that lived between 15 million and 3.6 million years ago.
Why it matters
This rediscovered specimen helps validate previous size estimates for one of the largest predators to ever exist and provides additional anatomical data for understanding megalodon biology. The findings contribute to paleontological knowledge about ancient marine ecosystems and the evolution of large sharks.
Understand the Science
An associated set of gigantic vertebrae belonging to the iconic extinct megalodon, or megatooth shark, that had been missing in action since the 1980s was discovered, providing new information about the shark’s lifestyle. Two Museum of Southern Jutland staff members, Mette Elstrup and Trine Sørensen, and a researcher at Aarhus University, Henrik Lauridsen, teamed up with a scientist in the United States and another in Australia and took a renewed look at a once-lost vertebral specimen of Otodus megalodon, the fossil shark that lived nearly worldwide about 15 million to 3.6 million years ago.
Source: Lost megalodon vertebrae resurface, confirming 80-foot size estimate