Anatomy of a Megalodon attack

Dr Edmund Locard famously stated:  “wherever he touches, whatever he leaves, even without consciousness, will serve as a silent witness against him”.  In simple terms:  “every contact leaves a trace” (Forensic Architecture).  

So what evidence has Megalodon left us with?

An examination of ‘damaged’ fossil Megalodon teeth allows for the reconstruction of quite an interest pattern of predation. Through examining Megalodon teeth, the following evidence has been left in the fossil record:

Outcome 1 – The tooth point hits a bone in the prey animal, resulting in an impact fracture to the tip of the tooth.

Outcome 2 -   The tooth hits a bone in the prey animal, resulting in a compression fracture to the tooth.

Outcome 3 – A tooth becomes dislodged during the course of an attack and becomes embedded in the prey animal’s flesh. Evidence for this includes:

a. Bite marks on the surface of Megalodon teeth – these areusually attributed to a Megalodon biting its lost tooth during a ‘feeding frenzy’, but cutting into a hard object which is not fixed or held in position is difficult to do.

b. Teeth are cut in half;

c. Parallel bite marks left on fossil Megalodon teeth suggest Megalodon had close packed, parallel rows of biting teeth.

Outcome 4 - The attacking animal bites into a tooth that has been dislodged and left in the prey animal, cutting a tooth in its mouth. Such damage leaves ‘V-notch’ shaped bite marks.

Comment

Evidence for each of these outcomes is listed in the following posts.

Posted: 19 February 2014.

Reference

Forensic Architecture. (2014). Locard’s Exchange Principle [online]. Available at <http://www.forensic-architecture.org/lexicon/exchange-principl-edmond-locard/>.