Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction

COOPER, JACK; Pimiento, Catalina; Ferrón, Humberto G.; Benton, Michael J.

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-71387-y

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Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction

JACK COOPER, Catalina Pimiento

, Humberto G. Ferrón, Michael J. Benton

Scientific Reports, Volume: 10, Issue: 1

Swansea University Authors: JACK COOPER, Catalina Pimiento

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DOI (Published version): 10.1038/s41598-020-71387-y

Abstract

Inferring the size of extinct animals is fraught with danger, especially when they were much larger than their modern relatives. Such extrapolations are particularly risky when allometry is present. The extinct giant shark †Otodus megalodon is known almost exclusively from fossilised teeth. Estimate...

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Published in:	Scientific Reports
ISSN:	2045-2322
Published:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2020
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URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65088
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spelling	v2 65088 2023-11-24 Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction 5bee81f19e912ca8068a4e96add6466f JACK COOPER JACK COOPER true false 7dd222e2a1d5971b3f3963f0501a9d4f 0000-0002-5320-7246 Catalina Pimiento Catalina Pimiento true false 2023-11-24 Inferring the size of extinct animals is fraught with danger, especially when they were much larger than their modern relatives. Such extrapolations are particularly risky when allometry is present. The extinct giant shark †Otodus megalodon is known almost exclusively from fossilised teeth. Estimates of †O. megalodon body size have been made from its teeth, using the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as the only modern analogue. This can be problematic as the two species likely belong to different families, and the position of the †Otodus lineage within Lamniformes is unclear. Here, we infer †O. megalodon body dimensions based on anatomical measurements of five ecologically and physiologically similar extant lamniforms: Carcharodon carcharias, Isurus oxyrinchus, Isurus paucus, Lamna ditropis and Lamna nasus. We first assessed for allometry in all analogues using linear regressions and geometric morphometric analyses. Finding no evidence of allometry, we made morphological extrapolations to infer body dimensions of †O. megalodon at different sizes. Our results suggest that a 16 m †O. megalodon likely had a head ~ 4.65 m long, a dorsal fin ~ 1.62 m tall and a tail ~ 3.85 m high. Morphometric analyses further suggest that its dorsal and caudal fins were adapted for swift predatory locomotion and long-swimming periods. Journal Article Scientific Reports 10 1 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2045-2322 3 9 2020 2020-09-03 10.1038/s41598-020-71387-y The datasets generated and/or analysed during the current study can be found via the Dryad Digital Repository at: https://datadryad.org/stash/share/cGI08m4rPYWUD6VucWxu0oz3TniVnLKC-5umhvLHgaE. COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University Other C.P. was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Grant agreement no. 663830. H.G.F. is a recipient of a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (H2020-MSCA-IF-2018-839636). M.J.B. was funded by a NERC Grant NE/I027630/1. 2024-03-07T15:50:14.8350130 2023-11-24T11:15:42.0883285 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences JACK COOPER 1 Catalina Pimiento 0000-0002-5320-7246 2 Humberto G. Ferrón 3 Michael J. Benton 4 65088__29663__20599daff1944aab8c7cac9d97c0142c.pdf 65088_VoR.pdf 2024-03-07T15:48:41.6382605 Output 1362643 application/pdf Version of Record true This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
spellingShingle	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction JACK COOPER Catalina Pimiento
title_short	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
title_full	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
title_fullStr	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
title_full_unstemmed	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
title_sort	Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction
author_id_str_mv	5bee81f19e912ca8068a4e96add6466f 7dd222e2a1d5971b3f3963f0501a9d4f
author_id_fullname_str_mv	5bee81f19e912ca8068a4e96add6466f_*_JACK COOPER 7dd222e2a1d5971b3f3963f0501a9d4f_*_Catalina Pimiento
author	JACK COOPER Catalina Pimiento
author2	JACK COOPER Catalina Pimiento Humberto G. Ferrón Michael J. Benton
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container_title	Scientific Reports
container_volume	10
container_issue	1
publishDate	2020
institution	Swansea University
issn	2045-2322
doi_str_mv	10.1038/s41598-020-71387-y
publisher	Springer Science and Business Media LLC
college_str	Faculty of Science and Engineering
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hierarchy_parent_title	Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str	School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
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description	Inferring the size of extinct animals is fraught with danger, especially when they were much larger than their modern relatives. Such extrapolations are particularly risky when allometry is present. The extinct giant shark †Otodus megalodon is known almost exclusively from fossilised teeth. Estimates of †O. megalodon body size have been made from its teeth, using the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) as the only modern analogue. This can be problematic as the two species likely belong to different families, and the position of the †Otodus lineage within Lamniformes is unclear. Here, we infer †O. megalodon body dimensions based on anatomical measurements of five ecologically and physiologically similar extant lamniforms: Carcharodon carcharias, Isurus oxyrinchus, Isurus paucus, Lamna ditropis and Lamna nasus. We first assessed for allometry in all analogues using linear regressions and geometric morphometric analyses. Finding no evidence of allometry, we made morphological extrapolations to infer body dimensions of †O. megalodon at different sizes. Our results suggest that a 16 m †O. megalodon likely had a head ~ 4.65 m long, a dorsal fin ~ 1.62 m tall and a tail ~ 3.85 m high. Morphometric analyses further suggest that its dorsal and caudal fins were adapted for swift predatory locomotion and long-swimming periods.
published_date	2020-09-03T15:50:11Z
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score	11.013731

Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon: a 2D reconstruction

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