I am sure many of you know who Meg is, and I am sure many of you know that he got his name from the ancient Shark
Carcharodon megalodon. However, your knowledge of the shark probably only extends "it was a big shark that lived a long time ago." Well, I am here to shed some light on this prehistoric bad ass.

First of all, it was a really big shark that lived a long time ago. Since all we have of the shark is it's teeth and a few vertebrae (cartilidge doesn't fossilize well.) We can only estimate its length, with a scientific consensus being 52-67 feet long, maybe even longer, making it possibly the biggest predator to ever exist with the only possible competitors being a couple of Ichthyosaur species and the sperm whale. The oldest fossil teeth we have, date to around 28 million years ago, and it is believed they went extinct around 1.5 million years ago, which means Megalodon was around for 26.5 million years. An incredibly long time for a species to exist, to put that in perspective, T.Rex was only around for a few million years, and the primate Chris chelios has only been around for 1.2 million years. So for 26.5 million this badass (I can't decide if it's one word or two) ruled the seas preying on everything from giant turtles to sperm whales to octopus and orca. This was a terrifying time to be a marine animal (for a modern day equivalent, see Scott Steven's career.)

Most scientists believe that it's closest living relative is the great white shark, they base this on the similar teeth and vertabrae. However some say they are more closely related to mako sharks and should be in the genus Carcharocles. They point to the differences in the teeth to explain why. They are wrong partially because they completely disregard the very similar vertabrae, but mostly because they are idiots. Also, mako sharks aren't as awesome as great whites. Pretty much all drawings of Megalodon are just bigger great whites, further proof that they are closely related.

via www.loyno.edu

via www.badassoftheweek.com

This is actually a recreation of a dream Meg had last week, he is the Megalodon about to eat Donald who was foolish enough to go scuba diving in shark infested waters.

The story of Megalodon will be continued in part 2.