Huge ancient megalodon shark ‘ate sperm whales’, new research shows

Megalodon, an ancient shark up to 65ft long and weighing over 50 tons, ate sperm whales by ripping off their heads with its huge teeth, a new study has shown.

The now-extinct shark – which is three-and-a-half times bigger than the Great White – was attracted to sperm whales by their huge nose.

It even attacked the huge sperm whale relative Leviathan melvillei - named after the author of Moby Dick, say scientists.

The sperm whale's enormous snout is packed with oily saturated fats which generate the clicking sounds used for echolocation and communication – and boost buoyancy.

The tissue was megalodon's most nourishing food.

Read more: Boy, 6, finds Megalodon shark tooth

The findings are based on seven million year old fossilised sperm whale skulls from the coastal desert of southern Peru.

A series of bite marks indicate sharks – including Leviathan – consistently fed on them. They shed fresh light on the evolution of marine ecosystems.

Lead author Aldo Benites-Palomino, a palaeontology student at the University of Zurich, said: "These are concentrated along the nose, mouth and face.

"In sperm whales, these regions receive most of their greatly enlarged nasal organs that are responsible for the sound production and emission system.

"The main organs of this complex are the spermaceti and the melon, structures rich in fats and oils, but also heavily regulated by the facial muscles.

"Most of the bite marks have been found on the bones that would be adjacent to these soft tissue structures, such as the jaws, or around the eye, thus indicating that sharks actively targeted this region."

Read more: How Great White sharks beat the Megalodon

Megatooth sharks such as megalodon get their name from their massive teeth, which can each be bigger than a human hand.

While sharks of one kind or another have existed since long before the dinosaurs — for more than 400 million years — these megatooth sharks evolved after the dinosaurs went extinct and ruled the seas until just 3 million years ago.

Princeton research this month suggested that megalodon also ate all other predators in the ocean.

“We’re used to thinking of the largest species — blue whales, whale sharks, even elephants and diplodocuses — as filter feeders or herbivores, not predators,” said Emma Kast, a 2019 PhD graduate in geosciences at Princeton.

“But megalodon and the other megatooth sharks were genuinely enormous carnivores that ate other predators, and 'Meg' went extinct only a few million years ago.”

Danny Sigman, Princeton’s Dusenbury professor of geological and geophysical sciences, said, “If megalodon existed in the modern ocean, it would thoroughly change humans’ interaction with the marine environment.”

Watch: What happened to the Megalodons?