"The megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago, and is thought to be the largest shark that ever swam the Earth. But there's debate over what it looked like. Most scientists have described it as a bigger version of today's great white shark, a depiction that has informed its appearance on the silver screen like in the 2018 film "The Meg."

A research team now suggests the giant shark may have been more slender than scientists thought, according to a new publication in Palaeontologia Electronica. If that's true, it would alter our understanding of how it behaved in its ancient environment — and what mark it may have left on the ocean ecosystem of today.

"As one of the largest carnivores that ever existed," explains Kenshu Shimada, a paleobiologist at DePaul University, "deciphering the biology of Megalodon is critical to understand the role large carnivores play in the context of the evolution of marine ecosystems and how its extinction influenced the development of the present-day ocean.""

Ari Daniel reports for NPR January 26, 2024. [2]