This discovery offers a new theory to how the world's most ferocious predator went extinct more than 3 million years ago. (Virginia Museum of Natural History via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 3.0)
Smithsonian Magazine has a story about Megalodon sharks. A new paper in the journal Biology Letters raised their your in nurseries like many modern day sharks. Otodus megalodon was probably the largest predatory shark that every lived. It ruled the oceans ruled from 23 to 3.6 million years ago.
Nurseries provide a safe haven for baby sharks to grow before they depart to take on the great blue sea. They are typically found in warm, shallow waters, such as coral reefs and mangroves, that offer an abundance of food. Nurseries also shield baby sharks from predators and protect them as they learn to hunt, reports Melissa Cristina Márquez for Forbes. And this behavior didn't die out with the megalodons—some modern-day shark species, like great whites and catsharks, also raise their young in nurseries.
"I just find it fascinating that even what many call the ‘biggest and baddest shark of all time’ had to spend the first few years of its life growing up in a special location before it could dominate the oceans itself," Phillip Sternes, a shark researcher at University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study, tells Forbes.
In this new study, a team of scientists analyzed a set of 25 megalodon teeth collected around northeastern Spain. The teeth were much too small to belong to the fully grown giants, so the scientists figured that the teeth must have belonged to juveniles, reports Lucy Hicks for Science. Fossil evidence also suggests that millions of years ago, the same region had shallow shorelines, warm water and flourishing marine life, which would have made it a perfect place for baby sharks to thrive. Given the collection of baby teeth and the geography of the area, the scientists determined that a megalodon nursery must have existed there, reports Eleonore Hughes for Agence France-Presse (AFP).
