Study Reveals; Extinction of Megalodon Shark Paved the Way for Whales

The annihilation of Megalodon (60 foot long shark) is  the chief reason behind the transformation in the size of whales.

Lately, researchers revealed that that Megalodon sharks helped the whales to grow in size. Megalodon is considered as the world’s  largest shark,  which wiped out from Earth nearly 1.8 million years ago. Even a single tooth of the ancient shark was approximately seven inches.  Surprisingly, these sharks died out at the time of the appearance of the modern whales.

Afterwards, whales became the largest animal of the world. They are even larger in terms of size than the dinosaur

The Expers of University of Florida and University of Zurich struggled to find out the cause behind the extinction of sharks. They examined the data of 42 latest remnants in specially for this purpose. They accumulated the entire data from an online source of the fossils of ancient animals known as Paleobiology Database.

Moreover, they utilized the Optical Linear Estimation to discover the exact death date of that animal.

In the end the study revealed a significant information regarding the extinction of the top underwater predator.  It disclosed that the Megalodon disappeared, probably 2.6 million years ago from this world. It was the era of Pliocene and Pleistocene when the whales turned into an enormous species.

Furthermore, researchers stated that the timings are a big evidence since marine mammals were the only source of their food.

The study is printed in the journal Plos One.