graphic prehistoric animals mega shark

MEGALODON

Illustrated by Alessandro Poluzzi Colored by Oliver West contents

Published by Smart Apple Media, an imprint of Black Rabbit Books P.O. Box 3263, Mankato, Minnesota 56002 www.blackrabbitbooks.com LearnWHAT the facts IS aboutA MEGA this amazingSHARK? animal. U.S. publication copyright © 2017 Smart Apple Media. International copyright reserved in all countries. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. page 4

Produced by David West Children’s Books 6 Princeton Court, 55 Felsham Road, London SW15 1AZ The Story… Designed and written by Gary Jeffrey mega shark in the Copyright © 2017 David West Children’s Books

Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file with the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-1-62588-410-7 pacific ocean eBook ISBN 978-1-62588-426-8 page 6

Find out aboutFOSSIL amazing FINDS mega shark fossils. Printed in China CPSIA compliance information: DWCB16CP page 22 010116

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Look up theANIMAL animals thatGALLERY appear in the story. page 23

GLOSSARYpage AND24 INDEX what is a mega shark? animal facts means “Big Tooth” the size and white shark’s MegalodonsMEGALODONlived around 16 million to 1.6 million years ago, during the shapeudging of its by teeth, scientists hefavorite great food is seal—easy to Miocene and Pliocene periods. Fossils of their remains have been found believe Megalodon would have catch and with a blubbery body all around the world (see page 22). looked like a massively giant-sized that provides maximum energy. greatJ white shark. MegalodonT hunted whales for the Its mouth could open to It liked to eat whales and Like the great same reasons and could sense a 6.5 feet (2 m) wide. large dolphins and was constantly loooking out for its white, the mega pod two miles next meal. shark had rows of (3.2 km) serrated teeth. away. They could saw through flesh, blubber, and bone like a steak knife. Mega shark would also have had a A 7-inch (18- cm) Megalodon modern shark’s hunting tooth dwarfs a 2.5-inch senses—a powerful sense (6-cm) great white shark CARCHARODON of smell and the ability to tooth. The great white It had up to 300 teeth, MEGALODON (RAGGED (below) is the largest arranged in several rows. detect tiny electrical signals modern-day predatory fish, BIG TOOTH) MAY HAVE from mammals’ heartbeats It would lose but it would have been prey MEASURED UP TO 66 FEET and fishes’ gills. The largest Megalodon and replace in the time of (20 M) LONG AND teeth were 8.5 inches more than 1,000 the mega (22 cm) long. teeth in its lifetime. WEIGHED UP TO 54 TONS a shark. (49 METRIC TONS). quippedstreamlined with torpedo-like body and large fins and tail, Megalodon would have closed Ein and struck at its prey with This would be the speed and surprise of a Megalodon and you. fast-attack submarine.

4 5 once free, the baby sharks mega shark in the pacific ocean swim away as fast as possible to avoid being eaten by their mother. summertime, four million years ago, off the coast of what is now peru.

two large sharks are born from a monster mother—a full-grown megalodon—in the shallow coastal waters that will be their nursery.

as they head toward the reef, a shadow passes overhead. It is a long-finned mako shark, attracted by the scent of the birth.

but the mako is not much bigger than the babies and cruises past. the babies swim along the coral looking for food.

6 7 three years later, only one of the the odobenocetops babies is still alive. the surviving spot the megalodon shark, a male, has grown to 9.5 just in time. feet (2.9 meters) long, and is on the hunt for prey.

a pair of juvenile odobenocetops practices jousting on the sea floor near the coast. they swim away, using their tusks to whip up clouds of sediment from the seabed to hide themselves.

the clack—clacking of their tusks attracts the young megalodon.

the young shark veers past a feeding thalassocnus. the sea sloth remains motionless until the shark passes. it powers in on them for the kill.

the megalodon sees a pod of dwarf killer whales heading inshore. the pod might mistake it for a meal.

8 9 a group of acrophoca the sperm whale are also out hunting approaches the today. they close in on megalodon and uses a shoal of herring. its bulk to bump the shark aside.

the juvenile megalodon is swimming fast toward the the megalodon twists to snap at the sperm whale, but the seals, but it has competition rising from the deep. whale has already shot forward in a flurry of bubbles.

it is a juvenile raptorial the acrophoca spot the sperm whale. danger and dart away from the herring to head for shore.

10 11 twelve years later, the seals swim quickly the male megalodon to shore and begin to is fully grown. it is leap from the water. by far the largest predator to stalk the ocean.

it is an hour after dawn—its best hunting time—when the water is still dim and murky from the nighttime.

the sperm whale is reluctant to enter the shallows and risk getting beached. it turns away.

but other hunters are not so careful.

on the beach, a dwarf killer whale rides …and gets its breakfast. the surf into shore on its belly…

a pod of porpoises gives the giant a wide berth as they pass, but megalodon is looking for bigger game to feed its gigantic appetite.

12 13 cruising the surface, it senses that a pod of cetotheriums is gathered some distance away. an albatross and gulls circle its fin, waiting for scraps.

the mighty megalodon begins to dive, scaring off a great white shark that megalodon’s dark has been chasing a porpoise. gray upper body color camouflages it as it descends into the gloom.

the cetotheriums are busy feeding on a rich shoal of krill that has risen to the surface. they are unaware of the distant diving shark.

14 15 it is now a race to the bottom… the shark thrashes its head from side to it grabs its mouthful and swims away side to slice off a hunk of flesh. it to swallow it, leaving the doomed loses some teeth in the process. cetotherium to drift in shock.

…a race the elder the kill quickly whale cannot win. attracts other predators of all sizes, ready to feed.

at the first hit, the megalodon's razor— but they all make way for the sharp teeth sink into megalodon as it swims back the whale’s midriff. for another bite.

20 21 fossil finds animal gallery

WE CAN GET A GOOD IDEA OF WHAT MAY HAVE LOOKED All of these appear in the story. LIKE FROM THEIR FOSSILS. FOSSILS AREANCIENT FORMED WHENANIMALS THE HARD PARTS OF AN animals ANIMAL OR PLANT BECOME BURIED AND THEN TURN TO ROCK OVER MILLIONS OF YEARS.

ossilizedteeth have been Megalodon unearthed since medieval times. Then they were “extremeAcroph oseal”ca Tha“sealas sloth”socnus “walrus-faceOdobenoc ewhale”tops thought to be the tongues of Apart from a small section of spine, no length: 5 ft (1.5 m) length: 6 ft (1.8 m) length: 6.8 ft (2.1 m) dragonsF and giant snakes turned piece of a Megalodon skeleton has ever a primitive seal that had a long a bizarre slothlike creature that a cross between a walrus and a been discovered. neck and short flippers and anchored itself to the seabed to manatee that had a long right to stone. could not swim as well as graze on reeds tusk and a short left one are made modern seals fromhark cartilage, skeletons which is softer than bone and rarely fossilizes. The thousands of Megalodon teeth S discovered are their only remains and

the basis of their dwOrcinusarf ki lcitoniensisler whale Carcharodongreat whit carchariase shark egalodonthe greater part ruled of the reconstruction. length: 13 ft (4 m) average length: 15 ft (4.6 m) very similar to a small modern killer whale but the great white shared the prehistoric oceans world’s oceans for 14 million with a few extra teeth; hunted in packs with Megalodon and survived to modern times Myears, dying out just before the by adapting to life in colder waters first great ice age. A combination of Reconstructions shrinking seas (bound up in ice at the of Megalodon poles), the disappearance of warm jaws in museums around the water whales (its food source), world are and the drying out of based on the coastal waters (its various sizes of nurseries) doomed the found fossil teeth. Even the “whale beast” length: 20 ft (6 m) mega shark. Cetotherium raptorial sperm whale smallest jaw is wide length: 15 ft (4.6 m) a predatory physeter (blow pipe) whale that enough to swallow a an ancient baleen whale, like a smaller, sleeker differed from modern sperm whales by having gray whale, that used plates of whalebone to sift teeth in the upper as well as lower jaw man whole. water for krill and small marine animals

22 23 glossary baleen whale a whale that has whalebone plate “teeth” to sift plankton breach to break clear of the water echolocation the locating of objects by using reflected sound, as practiced by whales, dolphins, and bats fossil the remains of a living thing that have turned to rock juvenile a young animal not yet fully grown krill shrimplike plankton (microscopic organisms that drift in the sea) Miocene period time between 23,000,000 to 5,000,000 years ago when grasslands slowly replaced Earth’s great forests Pliocene period time between 5,000,000 and 2,000,000 years ago just before the start of the ice ages pod a group of whales or dolphins predator an animal that preys on others raptorial grabbing serrated having a jagged, sawlike edge terminal velocity maximum achievable speed

index

Acrophocas, 10, 11, 23 hammerhead sharks, porpoises, 13, 14 albatrosses, 14 16 raptorial sperm Cetotheriums, 14, 15, krill, 15 whales, 10, 23 18, 19, 23 mako sharks, 7 seals, 5, 10, 12, 23 dolphins, 4 manta rays, 17 sperm whales, 10, 11, dwarf killer whales, 9, 12, 23 12, 23 Odobenocetops, 8, 9, stingrays, 16 23 great white sharks, 5, Thalassocnuses, 9, 23 14, 23 pods, 5, 9, 13, 17, 19 turtles, 16

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