Megalodon was a huge shark (almost 60 feet in length) that lived during the Cenozoic Era (23-2.6 million years ago). It probably looked like a larger, heavier version of the living great white shark. It was one of the most powerful predators that ever lived. Fossils of megalodon have been found in many places, and it is believed that it lived in all of the oceans of the world.
Megalodon teeth have been collected for hundreds of years. During the renaissance, some people thought that they were the petrified tongues of dragons and snakes, but in 1667, the Danish scientist Nicolaus Steno recognized them as shark teeth. The famous Swiss zoologist Louis Agassiz, was the first to notice the similarity of the teeth of megalodon to those of the great white shark, and so called it Carcharodon megalodon, although some zoologists still think that megalodon is more closely related to other modern sharks, and put it in its own genus - Carcharocles.
Like living sharks, megalodon had a skeleton made of cartilage, which does not fossilize well. Because of this, we have mostly teeth and vertebrae. The teeth are large (up to 7 inches in length), triangular in shape, with serrations on both cutting edges. By comparing these to the teeth and vertebrae of living sharks, we can estimate the actual size of a whole megalodon. Estimates of Megalodon's total length are speculation, as only partial remains are known, but it's safe to say our Megalodon toy is quite a bit smaller. The teeth of megalodon resemble those of the great white shark, although they are bigger, of course.
