What Did Megalodon Really Look Like? 

I'm certain it looked like a shark

7:34 Megalodon then: "I am a giant great white shark." Megalodon now: "I am a giant pill."

Given the time period, it most likely had a Beatles haircut...

movies: big scary great white reality, probably: _c h o n k y b o i s_

It could've looked like a Honda civic but we will never know

Megalodon could have had super saiyan 3 hair and no one would know

I'd get really depressed if I got eaten by a shark that looked like an overgroen salmon

2:23 that prehistoric shark looks incredibly sad.

What if the Megalodon was all mouth and actually a lot smaller in length than estimated

“Carcharodon Megalodon” Ah, yes, the classic “Mega-toothed shark-tooth”

Im still holding on to my theory about a small fish with a massive tooth at the end of his tail

“I’m trying to hunt around- but I’m dummy thicc and my tail keeps alerting the whales”

Me: *Drawing a shark. Passerby: That doesn't really look like a shark. Me: It's a speculative interpretation of Megalodon.

That Megalodon gets bullied by the other sharks at the gym

Scientists have already proven that Megalodon had feathers.

Rename the Meg: “Chunkalodon Megachonkdon”

Just imagine... *HAMMERHEAD MEGALODON*

7:45 - *THICC MEGALODON!* Our dreams are now complete, and we sleep with peace

I have a theory that it looked like a large fish

Sometimes I wish I had a time machine so I can just go back in time and look at these extinct creatures so I can actually see what they look like and how they behaved instead of constantly wondering. Unfortunately time machines are impossible (for now)

That's not a shark That's a blimp

Anyone else annoyed at the idea of undescribed specimens lurking in private collections?

Popular idea is it's a giant great white. Science: "It's a big chonk of a shark."

I love the Whale shark look for the Meg, definitely incredibly intimidating and makes sense given it’s size. I would look at all large fish and Whales and see if you can find more examples of convergent evolution between them all. It might help paint what Megalodon looked like. I would also love to see a sketch of the Meg with a more Sand Tiger shark body, could be really interesting.

We’re gonna need a bigger treadmill.

Doesn't _Charcharodon charcharias_ basically translate to shark-toothed shark?

It'll be awesome and horrifying at the same time if it looks even more monstrous than we currently think.

Plot twist: Megalodon wasn't a shark and was instead a marine dinosaur with a bald head, yellow body, and red limbs

I never stop wondering how not only megalodon but all other prehistoric creatures really looked like. I'm sure they looked so much more amazing than what we think.

Whether megalodon was sharp snout or fat snout, we can all agree, that it was *thicc*

if Megalodon look like that I wouldn't call it Megalodon but Chonkolodon

“What did a Megalodon really look like?” 11 minutes and 34 seconds of, “I have no fucking idea.”

Guys, It’s obvious what Megalodon looks like, It looked like a giant shark Edit;) damn, I didn't expect a dumb ass joke to start a full on comment war holy crap!!??

2:05 I just love that great white with a big friendly smile 😄

Sharks are one more different than the other, I don’t think megalodon would be a giant great white

I just got "The slap chop" as a advertisment and I watched the entire thing because its so wholesome

I've always loved the concept of a gigantic, terrifying sea-going predator from long ago... it gives me a kind of eerie tingling fear But this here thicc child makes me irrationally happy thank you

Thank you so much for doing this! It has been one of the greatest disappointments of my life to see Shark Week degrade into sensationalism and jump scare material so to have a chance to look forwards to actual informative shark videos again is so very pleasant.

I've no idea how someone can not like this video, the sheer amount of work that has been put into this vid alone is worth a freaking like. Show some respect. I honestly would like know what exactly those "dislike clickers" were thinking and not liking. Some details and arguments...

I always thought the depiction of Megalodon being an enlarged white shark was just really lazy.

Imagine if Megalodon was just a giant Hammer Head I know this is highly unlikely especially with the disadvantages. It’s just a fun stupid thought. By disadvantages I mean that a Hammer shaped head isn’t great for attacking large body prey. Hammerheads have heads designed for hunting rays and other creatures similar in size and shape. The wide head allows for more electromagnetic receptors(probably got the name wrong, sorry), this allows it to find prey in the sediment. However this isn’t great for slamming ones face into large prey. Hammerheads are efficient predators and are well designed however their body plan doesn’t fit well in hunting large prey. All this comment means is that what if there was ever a big Hammerhead shark that swam the oceans. Don’t dig into it. But then again, what about a massive Goblin Shark? Or Megalodon being having traits from multiple shark species? Who knows? However, I’m now interested in shark jaws and I want to see if Megalodons have jaws similar to other shark species so that could possible show the skull shape. Teeth aren’t helpful in showing what the skull of the animal is other then giving ideas. Take care RU-vid commenters!

we love a chonky prehistoric boi

thanks for the deep dive! I've seen a few videos and read some articles about how megalodon was likely just a big great white, but I didn't know about all the various different schools of thought. I wouldn' tmind even DEEPER dives into this and similar topics, like going down to exactly what details of the tooth are called, why they are called that, and what about them might have to say about larger morphology of the sharks. Thanks!

Your videos keep popping up. you've earned another sub. Great content 👍

Megalodon segregation : big boi Bulk boi Thicc boi EXTRA THICC BOI A W L A W D H E C O M I N

4:53-that shark got a camels back

Found your channel just now. Very interesting! ^-^

I very much enjoyed your Shark Week videos, almost as much as I enjoy your several videos on the Azhdarkid pterosaurs. If you continue to produce videos about shark evolution, I would quite appreciate a series on the so-called “cow sharks,” the large, evolutionarily “primitive” six-and-seven-gilled sharks that seem to spend a lot of time in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans. And just one more thing: your passion for the great work you did in the three Azhdarkid videos was explained for me when you confessed that as a group, they were your favourite types of pterosaur. Having been raised in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, I can still remember when paleontology still considered the (in)famous pteranodon the largest creature to have ever flown (as the Azhdarkids had not yet been well-documented or described as a group). Just for nostalgia’s sake-and bc I think many misconceptions about pteranodon abound-I’d enjoy your doing a video on that magnificent and iconic pterosaur.

Sadly shark fossils beyond teeth are very difficult to come by, we may never know how this shark really looked like.

Piranha: Hay, Pacu, we look alike, so our teeth must look alike, right? Pacu: No, my teeth look like human teeth...

Plot-twist: Megaladon looked like a giant rubber duck

The speculative version looks like it'd regularly sit in front of a fireplace in a velvet dressinggown, holding a cigar and reflecting on it's past

I’ve been able to enjoy feathered Velociraptor and herbivorous Gastornis more than their older depictions, so I’m a-okay with this toothy blimp.

THANK YOU FOR CREDITING ZDENĚK BURIAN!!! amazing artist from my country, his paintings are my childhood! this really made my day :)

Don’t worry. They’re extinct, thanks to Jason Statham.

Thank you, very very much for this nice video. You got a new follower. :)

Damn boi, he *THICC*

Congrats on 100k you have tought many people on many things

Really enjoyable and informative. Like most people dinosaurs and sharks fascinate me, so shark week sounds good. Would be interested in dog fish too.

It could’ve looked like the friend we made along the way but we'll never know

me: hey mom can we have megalodon? mom: no we have megalodon at home. megalodon at home: 7:21

The size of that lad! More like Megalo-CHONK! Absolute unit.

Fascinating we're alive in a time where topics like this can be discussed with such detail and evidence. Imagine what we will be talking about in 200 more years?

I think we can all agree that it probably had very muscular arms

There always seems to be a possibility missed on this one. Some of the largest extant predatory sharks are deep sea feeders (young Greatwhites, Sleepers, Greenland Sharks), so maybe Megalodon was a Sleeper/Greenland looking animal. I know its way less romantic to view it as an absolutely enormous, super slow moving potato shark, but its energy efficient (so you can get really big) and whale-fall type events would have been abundant (shit was just bigger and there were a lot of whales). Would have been an absolute nightmare to look at though, given how creepy and corpse-like sleepers and Greenland sharks are.

I always like to imagine a tiny ass shark with a GIANT set of jaws. Imagine swimming in the ocean and seeing a set of jaws with some fins and a small tail swimming towards you lmao

It's crazy how 2020 has changed my RU-vid recommendation to this day

No matter what it looked like, it must have been one hell of a creature to behold!

Been looking forward to this one. And yes I had seen that interpretation you used in the thumbnail. All hail megalochonk!

Congrats on 100K!

I certainly enjoyed your program and you pointed out some interesting concepts. What would I like to see in the future? How the Hammerhead Shark got such a bizarre shaped head. I can begin to form my own ideas such as they’re related to the Ray family but that’s as far as it goes. And I don’t think that I would be the only person wanting some insight into this. Regards O. Ogden

I’d like to think it is more similar in shape and form to a scaled up Tiger shark, and that’s even more terrifying to me

Only one person sad Meg is extinct... The Toothfairy

The art for the shark looks like a great white that's missing a few chromosomes

I’d love to see a remake of this with the new knowledge of their much longer length than thought when this came out.

Realistically it probably had its own look.Probably had a lot of different features that many sharks have today.

The great white shark is quite specialized animal, adapted for hunting fast moving mammals with a specific hunting method, so its unlikely megalodon would have been a scaled up version

If anything, the fossilized remains of megalodon make the body look considerably larger from the pectoral fins forward. This might mean that much of the shark's size and weight was at the front of the body. That may mean that it had a significantly larger skull. A couple thoughts, Color scheme: megalodon's teeth morphology is similar to White Sharks because its prey are similar -- both hunt large marine mammals, and it has been learned that White Sharks actually consume large amounts of meat from whale carcasses. This might indicate that megalodon had other similar morphology, such as its skin color being more similar to a White Shark than, say, a Mako Shark. Similarly, White Sharks hunt during the day and their color scheme and vision (White Sharks can see color) are adapted for hunting at day. Since megalodon's hunting behavior in the fossil record indicates it was a similar ambush predator, it may have hunted at the same time of day, and had similar orientation of its eyes -- at least similarly binocular vision as Carcharadon and Isurus. Skull Shape: megalodon teeth are shaped slightly differently than Carcharadon (see Facts in Motion: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xgY-fVSPIbc.html). Functionally, they are designed to bite large pieces of flesh off of prey, which is common in some legendary land predators. The idea that megalodon had a larger and wider skull to aid its lethal dental assault is supported by the fossil records of several land predators, including dinosaurs that hunted migratory megafauna. This might mean that the nose of megalodon, instead of pushed in, is actually stretched outward. Some other Mackerel Sharks have proportionately smaller noses than Carcharadon -- Porbeagles, Salmon Sharks and Thresher Sharks. As a starting point for paleo artists, those sharks may better indicate the shape of megalodon's skull, but more wide and broad.

Nice video. For me what is most missing though is an in depth discussion of what this 'eating machine' ate (the teeth would indicate) and therefore the body design to achieve that eating. A great white, I believe, feeds on primarily mammal tissue. What does that say about the similarity in tooth shape? Exactly what is the current conjecture regarding what these massive ancient sharks ate, or could eat, to support their size?

I want to think it looked like the one at 7:19 that looks even cooler than the upscaled great white imo

Congrats on 100k subs! I was going to bring up the zurich sauriermuseum’s specimen but I’m glad to see you addressed that at the end. Seems like we still don’t have an update after a year, unfortunately. I’m quite fond of the whale shark interpretation where I find it easiest to imagine the animal as it existed in real life.

Ah, congratulations on 100k subs! A proud accomplishment in the eternal endeavors of *education* and the power of knowledge.

The megalodon: was an apex predator that ruled the oceans for centuries. Me: hehe blimpy boi

The sand tiger makes sense knowing most of the teeth have been found in what were shallow seas. They wouldn't need to be a good swimmer, just capable of quick bursts to strike. That also could be why they died out, they were a specialized hunter. Once the seas were gone they weren't able to adapt to deeper oceans.

A big question is what sort of speed would Megalodon have needed to catch its prey and what its hunting strategies were like. If it was primarily an ambush predator which strikes from below, as the Great White often does, then its body would need to be a design that could pull off short bursts of speed. This would mean a very powerful tail along with a relatively streamlined body. Convergent evolution has caused reptiles, mammals, and sharks to develop roughly the same body plan independently of each other with Ichthyosaur and dolphins/orcas. I can't imagine a large surface-feeding carnivore like Megalodon would have a body-plan which is very different from that. The head could be a very different shape, but I think the meg's body had to have been shaped more like the Great White or Orca for the creature to catch its prey. The sorts of body-plans used by large deep-sea sharks like the Greenland Shark wouldn't work for a massive shark that hunts large whales on the ocean surface.

My favorite representation of this animal was in The Meg. There were plenty of subtle details that distinguished it from a giant great white.

It doesn't matter what it looks like, it would have been terrifying, especially under open water

When will scientist learn that 'I don't know' is a perfectly acceptable answer.

many years ago, I recall a Canadian shark researcher, the late Rick A. Martin make the opinion that Megs may have looked more like a sand tiger or even a nurse shark in 'body shape' than a great white. My reaction was a bit of a 'say what?!'

I really like that dark ambient music in the backround. What's the name of the track?

"What Did Megalodon look like?" "We dunno. We can only speculate."

Only 9k views needed to make this Ben G Thomas's 10th 1million views video!!

7:20 my favorite picture of the Megalodon even though it's a bit extreme.

Going off of that note on cartilage, what if there was a type of animal that was extremely widespread and common up until a couple million years ago, but their existence eludes us due to being comprised entirely out of cartilage/non-bony material? I know it’s pretty unlikely, since chances are they’d leave _some_ sort of imprints behind, but it’s a thought I had.

Somehow a 60-foot Sand Tiger sounds far more nightmarish than a 60-foot Great White

Hey, could you do a redo of this video but more easier to understand? I got somewhat confused when you were talking about the two opinions about the Megalodon

Congrats on 100k! 👌 u really deserve it!!!

Congrats on 100k

Megalodon then: Huge Great White Megalodon now: I'm a blimp shark

this is exactly what i was thinking it could look like a huge bullshark