Researchers from North Carolina State University collaborated with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to determine the cause of the deformed tooth of an Otodus megalodon. They examined it to know whether a developmental or feeding problem caused it.
The findings could give them more insight into the challenges a megalodon shark might face during its developmental stage and its feeding behavior.
A Bad Day for Megalodon
A megalodon tooth from 11 million years ago that had a crack was found in the Atlantic Ocean near the east coast of the US, baffling scientists about the actual cause.
NC State doctoral student and paper co-author Haviv Avraham said that megalodon was believed to have fed mostly on whales. But as scientists know, modern sharks could also have some tooth deformities when they nibble on something sharp that pierces the developing inside the mouth.
MailOnline reported that this knowledge led the team to hypothesize that the deformity must have also come from an injury caused by a spiny fish or was stabbed by a stingray barb.
Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology at the Museum, added that the megalodon who owned the deformed tooth they were analyzing, in particular, had a bad day. She explained that even though the megalodon was considered the largest shark that ever lived on the planet, being gigantic was not a walk in the park.
As an apex predator, the megalodon ruled the seas about 20 to 3.7 million years ago. They were often portrayed as gigantic, monstrous sharks in the media, given their huge fossilized tooth and vertebrae. Scientists suggest that these sea monsters most likely reached 50 to 65 feet (15 to 20 meters) in length or equivalent to 10 pin bowling lane.
Splitting or Germination
The researchers examined three deformed teeth, of which one was a 4-inch megalodon tooth, while the others were from modern sharks. According to SciTech Daily, all three were oddly shaped and displayed some form of tooth pathology. They also compared it with regular teeth and performed nano-CT scans to examine what was going on inside the deformed tooth.
The researchers were unable to give a definite cause to the deformed teeth. However, they were able to see the internal canal in normal teeth that confirms a splitting or joining of two teeth during development.
Avraham said that part of the difficulty in defining the cause is applying terminology from work in humans and other mammals to sharks. He noted that unlike mammals with boney skeletons, sharks have cartilaginous skeletons, so it is rare to find fossil records of them except for some teeth.
Additionally, sharks have different mechanisms in tooth development that suggest they may have a continuous tooth replacement that might be difficult to rule out fusion or germination. Given this information, researchers lean toward feeding-related injury as the most probable cause of the deformed tooth.
The abnormality called double tooth pathology has several causes, such as splitting or germinating in which one tooth bud has split. Germination could be caused by either disease, genetics, or physical injury.
RELATED ARTICLE: 15-Million-Year-Old Whale Fin Bone Found with Giant Shark Bites: Did a Megalodon Do It?
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