For centuries, the megalodon has dominated both scientific imagination and pop culture as a massive, fearsome version of today’s great white shark. Its sheer size, combined with its reputation as one of the most formidable predators ever to roam the oceans, has made it a subject of endless fascination. Hollywood has reinforced this image with blockbuster films depicting the megalodon as an enormous, barrel-chested shark, a monstrous cousin of Carcharodon carcharias—the great white. But according to groundbreaking new research, this long-held perception may be entirely wrong.
A recent study, spearheaded by scientists from the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and an international team of collaborators, paints a dramatically different picture of the prehistoric giant. Instead of resembling a supersized great white, megalodon’s body may have been longer, sleeker, and more streamlined—closer in shape to today’s lemon shark or even some of the large whales. This revelation has significant implications, not just for how we imagine the megalodon, but also for understanding its behavior, ecology, and evolutionary success.
For decades, researchers have estimated the size and shape of megalodon largely by examining its teeth, which are the most commonly found fossils of the species. These teeth, some the size of a human hand, have long suggested a shark of enormous proportions. Traditional reconstructions have often taken the body proportions of great white sharks and scaled them up to fit megalodon’s estimated size. But this method, while convenient, made a huge assumption—that megalodon was essentially just a bigger version of the great white.
The new study, published in Palaeontologia Electronica, takes a more sophisticated approach. Instead of relying solely on teeth, the researchers examined rare fossils of megalodon vertebrae, specifically from a well-preserved specimen found in Belgium. They then compared this vertebral column to over 100 species of both living and extinct sharks, seeking to understand how body proportions scale with size across the shark family tree.
One of the key authors of the study, Phillip Sternes, a shark biologist who completed his Ph.D. at UCR, explains the significance of this method. “By comparing vertebrae rather than teeth, we get a clearer picture of the animal’s overall shape and body plan,” he says. “Our analysis suggests megalodon was not as bulky as previously thought. Instead, it had a more slender, elongated body, similar to a lemon shark.”
The implications of this finding are profound. If megalodon was shaped more like a lemon shark than a great white, it would have had a longer, more cylindrical body, optimized for energy-efficient cruising, rather than the short, stocky frame ideal for sudden bursts of speed, as seen in great whites. This would mean that megalodon was less of a quick, ambush predator and more of a long-distance traveler, patrolling vast stretches of ancient seas in search of prey.
The study estimates that megalodon reached lengths of up to 80 feet, or about 24 meters—roughly the length of two school buses parked end to end. That’s bigger than many earlier estimates, which often topped out around 60 feet. In terms of mass, the researchers calculated megalodon’s weight at an astonishing 94 tons, comparable to a large blue whale. Yet, unlike whales, which move slowly through the water, megalodon’s body was built for efficiency and speed when necessary.
Tim Higham, another biologist from UCR and a co-author on the study, draws a comparison to the design of airplanes and elite swimmers. “You lead with your head when you swim because it’s more efficient than leading with your stomach,” he says. “And in nature, evolution often moves toward efficiency. A more elongated body reduces drag and helps an animal move smoothly through water, especially when that animal is 80 feet long.”
The concept of drag is critical here. In the marine world, minimizing resistance from the water is essential, especially for large animals. A stocky, barrel-shaped body like a great white’s creates more drag, which can be managed at smaller sizes but becomes problematic as an animal scales up. By contrast, a sleeker, more elongated shape, like that of a lemon shark, allows for more energy-efficient swimming over long distances.
This revised body plan also answers long-standing questions about megalodon’s swimming behavior. For years, scientists debated whether the predator was a high-speed hunter, like an oversized mako or great white, or a slow-moving scavenger that relied on stealth and surprise. The new findings suggest neither extreme. Megalodon likely cruised the oceans at moderate speeds, conserving energy but still capable of short bursts of acceleration when necessary to catch prey.
And what prey it would have been. The enormous size of megalodon would have allowed it to hunt some of the largest marine animals of its time, including early whales, seals, and giant sea turtles. Based on its estimated size at birth—roughly 13 feet long, about the size of an adult great white shark—it’s possible that even megalodon pups were already top predators, capable of hunting small marine mammals shortly after birth.
This study also helps scientists understand the constraints of gigantism in marine animals. Sternes explains, “Getting really big isn’t just about scaling everything up. You have to evolve the right body proportions to maintain efficiency at that size. If you’re too stocky, you can’t swim efficiently. If you’re too long and thin, you may not have enough power. Megalodon appears to have hit the sweet spot.”
In their search for modern analogs, the researchers found that lemon sharks provide the best model for understanding megalodon’s proportions. Lemon sharks, with their slender, torpedo-like bodies, are capable swimmers and efficient hunters. When scaled up to megalodon’s estimated length, their body plan offers a near-perfect match to what the study’s data suggested.
This research doesn’t just reshape our understanding of what megalodon looked like—it also offers insights into how size influences movement in marine animals more broadly. “By studying megalodon,” says Sternes, “we learn more about the limits of size in aquatic predators and the evolutionary pressures that shape their bodies. The laws of physics impose certain limits on how animals can grow, swim, and survive. Megalodon provides a case study in pushing those limits to the extreme.”
The findings also challenge our imagination, forcing us to rethink popular depictions of megalodon in films, books, and documentaries. Rather than a barrel-chested behemoth, it was likely a sleek, powerful cruiser, its massive body gliding smoothly through ancient seas, capable of traveling great distances with ease.
The team’s work highlights the importance of using multiple lines of evidence when reconstructing ancient animals. Fossils of teeth can tell us a lot, but they don’t give the complete picture. Bones, vertebrae, and comparisons with living species offer new clues, leading to a more accurate reconstruction.
Beyond its paleontological significance, the study underscores a broader evolutionary truth: the form of an animal is inextricably linked to its function. For a predator like megalodon to survive and thrive at such massive size, it needed to be both powerful and efficient, able to dominate its environment without wasting precious energy.
Today, megalodon remains an iconic figure in the story of life on Earth—a giant among giants, whose true form is only now coming into focus. As researchers continue to uncover more fossils and apply new technologies to study them, our understanding of this prehistoric apex predator will undoubtedly continue to evolve.
And while megalodon may have vanished from the oceans millions of years ago, the mystery and majesty of this ancient giant still inspire wonder. Now, thanks to cutting-edge science, we have a clearer image of a predator that was not just bigger, but better adapted for its time and place—a marvel of evolutionary design, streamlined for survival on an epic scale.