Source ~ Squishables

Result from the Pisco Formation, please leave all your angry comments below! The Miocene of the Pisco basin is an absolute insane hot spot for marine life, over the course of millions of years the sediments recorded dozens of large mammals, especially whales...

which are often times recorded in astonishing details. Because of this abundance of megfauna, it became necessary to narrow it down for this piece. We went with the Sud Sacaco locality which records life of a large bay, making it possible to include some coastal and benthic...

species, importantly the sloth Thalassocnus and the whale Odobenocetops. Nowadays the Pisco basin shows little of this former biodiversity, being largely desert with many specimens laying on, or just below the surface. This makes it easy to spot them but the high levels of...

erosion also means we are losing many fossils to the elements. And of course that means that small stuff is lost quicker than big whales. Subsequently, and because of other reasons, small stuff from here is little understood while...

when you look at the 1m+ animals you are getting swarmed by fantastical creatures. Weirdly enough, you will notice that Livyatan is in our size chart but it's actually not in the piece and it would not be in the locality, not just geographically but also temporary...

Otodus megalodon

The largest shark to have existed thus far. A truly monstruous predator from the Miocene that mainly fed on a variety of whales. Recent studies show that its body might've been slenderer than just having a Great White Shark body plan. This would help it cruise more efficiently across the ocean.

@belimah have a treat ✌🏼

I'll add scars and finish at some point but my brain is fried for now (it was fun as shit tho 👍)

Shark Week begins this weekend, so take a bite out of Fossil Friday! Check out these massive jaws and colossal teeth. They belong to Otodus megalodon: a gigantic shark. Dwarfing all living species of shark, megalodon measured roughly 50 feet (15 meters) long. What’s more? Megalodon had a bite force of 41,000 pounds—10 times the biting power of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), which can chomp down with a force of 4,000 pounds!

Fun fact: The first attempt to reconstruct the jaw of this colossal predator took place right here at the Museum. This photo, snapped all the way back in 1909, showcases an early reconstruction of megalodon’s massive jaws with a human for scale. The oldest known megalodon fossils date to approximately 20 million years ago, but it is believed that this marine predator roamed the seas until about 3.6 million years ago, when it vanished into extinction.

You can spot the fossilized remains of this prehistoric predator at the Museum! Plan your visit.