What caused Megalodon to become extinct?

Question

It hunted whales and they're still around. So how come Megalodon went extinct since it's food source is still around and thriving?

Answer 1

It might be extinct, but there are a couple theories, but One that seems likely is that another predator beat it at it's own game, preventing them from getting it's prey, but I really don't know.

Answer 2

Jordan, your answer was right on.  If an ecosystem is subject to drastic change in a short amount of time, it is usually the larger animals that have the hardest time adapting.  Think of the sauropods, or long-necked dinosaurs.  This was the first group of dinosaurs to go extinct, there are virtually no sauropod specimens found after the later part of the Jurassic period.  Megalodon might have been under significant environmental pressure which came too abruptly for it to survive.  Whales are still around because their food supply, largely plankton and small fish, survived by migrating out of the colder waters.  Also, because they are mammals, they have better thermoregulatory mechanisms that help them adapt.

Answer 3

Ice age, although some scientists say it may still exist in deep waters. The coelacanth story comes to mind.  

Answer 4

Most scientists agree that when the Megalodon was around, it was the top predator in the ocean, and was for a very long time. it usually preyed on small whales. Their one downfall was their lack of adaptability.

When the Ice Age rolled around, Great White Sharks (which were also around at the time) were able to adapt to the cold water, and they could swim further north to hunt for food, while the Megalodon was forced to stay in the warmest parts of the ocean. Eventually, all of the Megalodon's prey was being eaten by the Great Whites, and the Megalodon essentially went extinct due to a lack of food.

this is the most widely approved theory. however there is some speculation that the megalodon may still exist today, because the deepest parts of the ocean are so unknown, that we have no idea what could be down there.

On July 17th, 1997, an Autonomous Hydrophone Array in the Pacific Ocean picked up a sound that could be detected for 5000 km underwater. It lasted for 16 minutes, and it baffled scientists because it matched the sound patterns of sounds made by animals, but there is no known animal large enough to have produced the sound. It was named "Slow Down", because the sound steadily decreased in pitch, creating the effect of slowing down. The sound hasn't been detected since 1997.

look it up on wikipedia, they have a recording of the sound. just search "slow down" and go to the link that has "unidentified noise" next to it.

who knows what may be down there!

hope that helps!

Answer 5

The short answer is that nobody knows for certain.

However, these are some of the hypothesis about the extinction of Carcharodon megalodon (from the book “Megalodon. Hunting the hunter” by Mark Renz - published 2002- see link in Sources):

1. The rise of the Panama Isthmus which blocked the route these sharks used for breeding, and may have affected the warm Gulf stream and global water circulation

2. Direct competition by orcas (killer whales). As highly intelligent mammals, orcas may have simply outsmarted these sharks in the hunt for whales and other food sources;

3. Predation by killer whales: Orcas may have also teamed up to attack adult C. megalodon;

4. It is possible that the adults of great white sharks (C. carcharias) which coexisted for several million years with C. megalodon, preyed on Meg pups, or outcompeted Meg juveniles.

5. By the end of the Pliocene the whales were getting quicker and it became harder for the C. megalodon to hunt them. Also, some whales began to migrate to colder areas where the Megs couldn’t survive, and at least one species of whale that was one of the shark’s primary food sources had become extinct.

Of course, different authors favor one or more of these hypotheses, or a combination of them. Yet others claim that the cause of their extinction is not known and that there is simply not enough information about marine vertebrates during the part of the Tertiary period when these fish became extinct.

BTW, C. megalodon didn’t prey on whales only. According to another publication from 2004, “in the Neogene Caribbean tropical environment, C. megalodon probably fed mainly on small cetaceans, sirenids, turtles, and fish”.

You can read this publication at http://caribjsci.org/dec04/40_368-382.pd... ; it includes some interesting flow diagrams showing the role of Megs in Tertiary ecosystems.