Megalodon The Revenge | Animal World

Megalodon was a global species, with different populations likely adapting towards their local prey, similarly to how whales have distinct populations within a global distribution. While the only confirmed prey items of Megalodon are dwarf baleen whales, whose extinction due to the ice age likely contributed to Megalodon's extinction (while great whites' more resilient pinniped prey let it survive and prosper), feeding marks on large whales and a section of humpback rip that shows damage from a fatal infection after a large animal attacked it both suggest that adult giant baleen whales were also on the menu- though not a frequent enough dinner to save it from starvation.

Like modern sharks, Megalodon fed by thrashing side-to-side, using its whole body to leverage its jaws like sawblades. Sharks can swing their jaws forwards on a hinge, which means they can keep their jaws short and stout while still being able to reach far forwards- which lets them have much more powerful bites than their musculature might suspect. An adult meg would launch an ambush from below, using their dark backs to hide in deep water.

Megalodon, like other sharks, headed into shallow water to breed- Megalodon probably migrated long distances to reach safe breeding grounds, like the great white does today. Shark teeth in Panama are proof of a Megalodon nursery there, with babies as small as two metres long seeking sanctuary in the shallow water, with most sharks being babies and juveniles from two to ten metres. The lack of large marine mammal prey and the rarity of their teeth in the area suggests adults were only occasional visitors to the site. The smaller juveniles were probably threatened by great hammerheads and the extinct snaggletoothed weasel shark Hemipristis serra, both of which were about six metres long, while the larger ten-metre juveniles would only have adult Megalodon to fear.