{"id":120012,"date":"2020-11-25T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2020-11-25T09:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/prehistoric-mega-shark-raised-its-young-in-nurseries-study\/"},"modified":"2020-11-25T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T09:07:12","slug":"prehistoric-mega-shark-raised-its-young-in-nurseries-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/prehistoric-mega-shark-raised-its-young-in-nurseries-study\/","title":{"rendered":"#Prehistoric mega-shark raised its young in nurseries: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Prehistoric mega-shark raised its young in nurseries<\/a>: study<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Prehistoric
\n Megalodon jaws on display at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, USA. Credit: Serge Illaryonov \/ Wikimedia<\/a> \/ CC BY 3.0
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The largest sharks ever to have roamed the oceans parked their young in shallow, warm-water nurseries where food was abundant and predators scarce until they could assume their title as kings and queens of the sea.<\/p>\n


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But as sea levels declined in a cooling world, the brutal mega-predator, Otodus megalodons, may have found fewer and fewer safe-haven coastal zones where its young could safely reach adulthood, researchers reported Wednesday in The Royal Society journal Biology Letters<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the reliance of Megalodon on nurseries may have contributed to the end of their 20-million-year reign, according to the research.<\/p>\n

Otodus megalodon\u2014sometimes classified as a Carcharocles megalodon\u2014took 25 years to become an adult\u2014”an extremely delayed sexual maturity”, the authors said in the research paper.<\/p>\n

But once it was fully grown, the shark could reach up to 18 meters, three times the size of the largest great white shark, made famous by the 1975 hit-movie Jaws.<\/p>\n

As an apex predator, and up until its extinction around three million years ago, the adult megalodon had no rivals among other ocean hunters and feasted on smaller sharks and even whales. <\/p>\n

But its young were vulnerable to attacks by other predators, often other razor-toothed sharks.<\/p>\n

Nurseries on shallow continental shelves with extensive smaller fish for food and few competing predators gave them the ideal space to reach their awesome size.<\/p>\n

“Our results reveal, for the first time, that nursery areas were commonly used by the O. megalodon over large temporal and spatial scales,” said the authors.<\/p>\n

‘Perfect place to grow’<\/b><\/p>\n

The research team discovered a nursery zone off the eastern coast of Spain in Tarragona Province after visiting a museum and observing a collection of megalodon teeth.<\/p>\n

“Many of them were quite small for such a large animal,” the authors from British University of Bristol, Carlos Martinez-Perez and Humberto Ferron, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Judging by the size of the teeth, they surmised the area had once been home to young megalodons.<\/p>\n

The Spanish nursery could be described as “a perfect place to grow”, the authors said.<\/p>\n

It would have been a “shallow bay area of warm waters, connected to the sea and with extensive coral reefs and plenty of invertebrates, fish species, marine mammals and other sharks and rays”. <\/p>\n

The researchers analyzed eight other sets of shark teeth which had previously been gathered, spread across the United States, Peru, Panama and Chile. <\/p>\n

They came to the conclusion in four of them\u2014two in the United States and two in Panama\u2014had belonged to younger sharks. <\/p>\n

As a result, the authors suggest these four areas where the teeth were found might also have been nurseries. <\/p>\n

“The remaining four formations … demonstrate size-class structures typical of populations dominated by adults, suggesting these regions might correspond to feeding or mating areas,” the study said.<\/p>\n

Sharks continuously shed their teeth throughout their lifetime, and nurseries are zones with a high abundance of sharks.<\/p>\n

“As a consequence, huge numbers of teeth can be shed, increasing the chances of subsequent fossil discoveries,” the authors said.<\/p>\n

Megalodons enjoyed the warm and temperate waters of the Miocene period which extended from about five million to 23 million years ago.<\/p>\n

But the cooler Pliocene period suited them far less. <\/p>\n

As their prey adapted and headed towards colder waters, the megalodon stayed where the oceans remained warm. <\/p>\n

The remaining food was also favored by great white sharks, increasing competition with the smaller, but more agile, predator.<\/p>\n

The vast reduction of shallow water nurseries due to sea-level losses\u2014caused by a cooler climate\u2014may also have contributed to the megalodon’s eventual extinction.<\/p>\n\n

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True size of prehistoric mega-shark finally revealed\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n More information:<\/strong>
\n Jose L. Herraiz et al. Use of nursery areas by the extinct megatooth shark Otodus megalodon (Chondrichthyes: Lamniformes), Biology Letters<\/i> (2020). DOI: 10.1098\/rsbl.2020.0746<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

\n \u00a9 2020 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Prehistoric mega-shark raised its young in nurseries: study (2020, November 25)
\n retrieved 25 November 2020
\n from https:\/\/phys.org\/news<\/a>\/2020-11-prehistoric-mega-shark-young-nurseries.html<\/p>\n

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\n part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n