The largest marine predator to ever live, the megalodon, became extinct and in recent months new theories have cropped up as to who is to blame for that. Now, the giant shark is said to have died earlier than previously presumed according to a new study and the faulty might have been the great white, its successor.
What is the study talking about?
PeerJ is where the study has been published and suggest that about 3.6 million years ago the megalodons may have died making it 1 million years sooner than initially thought. Fossils found in Baja California, California, and Mexico along with other types of evidence have been re-examined which show that the responsible with its dead might have been their smaller, more agile cousin.
Approximately 4 million years ago the first great white shark has made its appearance on Earth which gives them a sufficient 400,000-year gap to become the apex predator of the seas, according to Robert Boessenecker, lead author and vertebrate paleontologist.
The College of Charleston professor was not so sure of megalodon extinction’s cause.
Approximately 2.5-million-years-ago, a mass extinction event took place which might have caused the megalodon to go extinct. This has also been the reason why hundreds of marine species die including a number of different walruses, porpoises, seals, sea cows, whales, and dolphins.
What is the truth about this event?
Another theory has come up in recent months, and many people were focused on it. According to it, the megalodon was not able to regulate their body temperatures as they were such big animals measuring 60 feet in length and having teeth nearly the size of a standard sheet of paper. During the Pliocene era the ocean temperatures where cooler which made whales, its favorite food, adapt while it did not.
