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Biology of Otodus megalodon: Tables

TABLE 1. List of all extant and extinct lamniform species examined in this study with their family, maximum total length for extant taxa (mTL; in cm; based on Ebert et al., 2021), neurocranial proportion (NP), trunk proportion (TP), and caudal fin proportion (CP) as well as “adjusted neurocranial proportion” (aNP) and “adjusted caudal fin proportion” (aCP) (see Figure 1C and text). This table also gives a median value for each variable.

Species Family mTL NP TP CP aNP aCP
†Palaeocarcharias stromeri †Palaeocarchariidae* - 0.108 0.670 0.222 0.161 0.331
†Scapanorhynchus lewisii Mitsukurinidae - 0.175 0.507 0.318 0.345 0.627
Mitsukurina owstoni Mitsukurinidae 620 0.205 0.478 0.317 0.429 0.663
†Aquilolamna milarcae †Aquilolamnidae - 0.067 0.624 0.309 0.107 0.495
†Ptychodus sp. †Ptychodontidae - 0.126 0.697 0.177 0.181 0.254
Carcharias taurus Carchariidae 325 0.105 0.631 0.264 0.166 0.418
Odontaspis ferox Odontaspididae 450 0.131 0.607 0.262 0.216 0.432
Odontaspis noronhai Odontaspididae 427 0.122 0.606 0.272 0.201 0.449
Pseudocarcharias kamoharai Pseudocarchariidae 122 0.126 0.662 0.212 0.190 0.320
Megachasma pelagios Megachasmidae 820 0.097 0.588 0.315 0.165 0.536
Cetorhinus maximus Cetorhinidae 1097 0.092 0.714 0.194 0.129 0.272
Alopias pelagicus Alopiidae 428 0.059 0.400 0.541 0.148 1.353
Alopias superciliosus Alopiidae 484 0.071 0.501 0.428 0.142 0.854
Alopias vulpinus Alopiidae 575 0.056 0.416 0.525 0.135 1.262
Carcharodon carcharias Lamnidae 640 0.119 0.690 0.191 0.166 0.275
Isurus oxyrinchus Lamnidae 445 0.129 0.695 0.176 0.186 0.253
Isurus paucus Lamnidae 430 0.108 0.681 0.211 0.159 0.310
Lamna ditropis Lamnidae 305 0.107 0.695 0.198 0.154 0.285
Lamna nasus Lamnidae 365 0.111 0.668 0.221 0.166 0.331
MEDIAN VALUES     0.108 0.631 0.262 0.166 0.418

* Ordinal and familial assignments of this species are questionable (see Villalobos-Segura et al., 2023).

 

 

 

TABLE 2. List of all extant and extinct orders as well as an operational category examined in this study and their minimum (Min.) and maximum (Max.) “adjusted neurocranial proportion” (aNP) and “adjusted caudal fin proportion” (aCP) as well as median aNP and aCP (see Figure 1C and text; data based on Appendix 3).

Taxon or examined category Min. aNP Max. aNP Median aNP Min. aCP Max. aCP Median aCP
†Synechodontiformes na na 0.268b na na 0.720b
Hexanchiformes 0.058 0.233 0.173 0.391 0.559 0.464
Echinorhiniformes na na 0.214b na na 0.361b
Squaliformes 0.086 0.336 0.189 0.190 0.493 0.302
Pristiophoriformes 0.401 0.657 0.533 0.265 0.339 0.299
Squatiniformes 0.122 0.131 0.126 0.163 0.176 0.170
†Protospinax annectansa na na 0.234c na na 0.226c
Heterodontiformes 0.180 0.211 0.188 0.262 0.333 0.295
Orectolobiformes 0.106 0.305 0.166 0.186 1.130 0.327
Lamniformes 0.107 0.429 0.166 0.253 1.353 0.418
Lamniformes minus mitsukurinids and alopiids 0.107 0.216 0.166 0.253 0.536 0.326
Carcharhiniformes 0.107 0.396 0.189 0.203 0.615 0.354
ALL EXAMINED SPECIES COMBINED 0.058 0.657 0.183 0.163 1.353 0.333

a, Order incertae sedis; b, n=1; c, average of n = 3

 

 

 

TABLE 3. Reported cruising speeds (CS; in km h-1; mean value is given if n>1) of select sharks and whales discussed in the text.

Group Species (common name) n CS Source
Sharks      
  Cetorhinus maximus (basking shark) 21* 3.9 Sims (2000)
  Megachasma pelagios (megamouth shark) 1 1.5 Nelson et al. (1997)
  Rhincodon typus (whale shark) 12 3.1 Gleiss et al. (2011)
  Somniosus microcephalus (Greenland shark) 6 1.3 Watanabe et al. (2012)
Whales      
  Balaenoptera borealis (sei whale) 1 8.0 Gough et al. (2021)
  Balaenoptera musculus (blue whale) 17 7.9 Gough et al. (2021)
  Balaenoptera physalus (fin whale) 2 10.4 Gough et al. (2021)
  Eubalaena glacialis (North Atlantic right whale) 29 1.9** Hain et al. (2013)
  Megaptera novaeangliae (humpback whale) 29 7.5 Gough et al. (2021)
  Physeter macrocephalus (sperm whale) 137 6.4 Aoki et al. (2007)

 

* A total of 21 ‘speed determinations’ from six individuals.
** Data of ‘singles and non-mother calf’ that consisted of a group with the fastest CS in their dataset.

 

 

 

TABLE 4. Raw measurements (BN, CR, and BI: from Shimada et al., 2021b, table 1) and derived measurements (pCR, eTL, and eGL) based on the sectioned vertebra of †Otodus megalodon (IRSNB P 9893, “centrum #4”; Figure 1J), where all data come from Shimada et al. (2021b, table 1) except eTL and eGL that are based on the new interpretation that IRSNB P 9893 measured 16.4 m TL when it died. Abbreviations: BN, band number; CR, centrum radius; BI, band interval from the previous band; pCR, percent centrum radius from the center of the vertebra; eTL, extrapolated total length of entire shark; eGL, estimated GL, estimated growth length gain from the previous year.

BN CR
(mm)		 BI
(mm)		 pCR
(%)		 eTL
(cm)		 eGL
(cm)
0 16.8 - 21.7 356 -
1 18.7 1.9 24.1 395 39
2 20.5 1.8 26.4 433 38
3 22.4 1.9 28.9 474 41
4 24.2 1.8 31.2 512 38
5 25.8 1.7 33.3 546 34
6 27.6 1.8 35.6 584 38
7 29.2 1.6 37.7 618 34
8 30.7 1.5 39.6 649 31
9 32.0 1.3 41.3 677 28
10 33.3 1.3 43.0 705 28
11 34.6 1.3 44.6 731 26
12 35.7 1.1 46.0 754 23
13 36.8 1.1 47.4 777 23
14 37.9 1.1 48.9 802 25
15 39.1 1.2 50.4 827 25
16 40.0 1.0 51.7 848 21
17 41.2 1.2 53.2 872 25
18 42.6 1.4 55.0 902 30
19 43.9 1.3 56.7 930 28
20 45.2 1.3 58.3 956 26
21 46.5 1.3 60.0 984 28
22 47.8 1.2 61.7 1012 28
23 49.1 1.3 63.3 1038 26
24 50.0 1.4 65.2 1069 31
25 51.9 1.4 67.0 1099 30
26 53.4 1.5 68.9 1130 31
27 54.8 1.4 70.7 1159 30
28 56.1 1.3 72.4 1187 28
29 57.5 1.4 74.2 1217 30
30 58.9 1.4 76.0 1246 30
31 59.9 1.0 77.3 1268 21
32 61.0 1.1 78.7 1291 23
33 62.0 1.0 80.0 1312 26
34 63.1 1.0 81.4 1335 30
35 64.3 1.2 83.0 1361 23
36 65.7 1.4 84.8 1391 30
37 66.8 1.0 86.2 1414 23
38 67.8 1.0 87.4 1433 20
39 69.1 1.3 89.2 1463 30
40 70.4 1.3 90.8 1489 26
41 71.6 1.2 92.4 1515 26
42 72.8 1.2 94.0 1542 26
43 74.0 1.2 95.5 1566 25
44 75.1 1.1 96.9 1589 23
45 76.3 1.1 98.4 1614 25
46 77.5 1.2 100.0 1640 26