BIG MEG

A fascinating account of a super-predator that once ruled the seas.

Australian scientist, explorer, and conservationist Tim Flannery teams up with his daughter, Emma, a scientist and writer, to offer a comprehensive look at the largest predator that ever lived, Otodus megalodon, a gigantic shark that’s been extinct for millions of years. Tim Flannery’s fascination with the beast began in 1973, when he was 16 and discovered a fossilized tooth on a beach. “The fossil,” he recalls, “was large enough to cover my palm. Its silken chestnut-brown enamel shone brilliantly in the sunshine.” It seemed magical. Such fossils, he discovered, were the only evidence that the megalodon ever existed, but they are not rare. The shark had about 272 teeth in its mouth, each replaced every few weeks. From the chemical composition of the fossils, scientists conclude that the megalodon consumed other predators. Much larger than even the largest of its ancestors, the megalodon weighed between 50 and 100 tons; an orca, weighing about six tons, would provide a mere snack. The modern shark, note the authors, came into existence some 200 million years ago, and about 100 million years ago began to act as the ocean’s top predator. But when a huge bolide struck the Earth about 66 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs, and about a third of all shark species, died out. Some 40 million years later, the megalodon arose and dominated the oceans, and the cause for its extinction between 4.5 and 2.5 million years ago remains a mystery. Besides imparting scientific information, including descriptions of many bizarre shark species, the authors report on humans’ responses to sharks, which arise in rituals, myths, and tales, including Jaws (which incited Emma Flannery’s recurring nightmares) and the 2018 film The Meg, which portrays the great shark “as a one-dimensional, murderous monster.”

A lively investigation into a marine mystery.