Jaws and the Megalodon Myth: Separating Fact from Fossil Fiction

June 20, 2025 by David McGuire

What Fossils (Don’t) Tell Us

On the 50th anniversary of the movie Jaws, and with the summer season bringing millions to the seashore, sharks are looming large in our consciousness. The book Jaws by Peter Benchley and the impactful film by Stephen Spielberg launched the great white shark (white shark) from obscurity into stardom- an effect that has not always been good for sharks. From Jaws to The Meg, images of large, toothy man-eaters have become popularized in a genre of ocean horror, and often comedic overlapping to the absurd) films. Jaws spinoffs and unbelievable antics in films like Three Headed Shark, Sharktopus and Sharknado all depict the ridiculous, but perpetuate the fear. The attention has not been lost on the media, and only fans the flames of shark hysteria.

Films of the prehistoric shark Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) magnified that fear factor through images of modern day great white shark stretched to proportion of 90 tons and over 80 feet in length. Films like the Meg and Discover Channel’s Shark Week have helped perpetuate a false perception that the ancient sharks looked like giant white sharks, and even the belief that some are still swimming in the depths of the ocean. Sorry kid, the Megalodon isn’t hiding in the Marianas Trench, lurking beneath the thermocline. If this shark were alive today, we’d see scars on whales, massive unfossilized teeth littering the seabed, and sonar records of the giant predator. Still, thrillers and mockumentaries have kept the myth alive, often to the detriment of existing shark species.

Speculation of what the Meg’s body type looked like are based primarily on the teeth and some fossilized jaws. Like all sharks, megalodon’s skeleton was made of cartilage, not bone. Cartilage does not fossilize well, and subsequently, unlike dinosaurs, their fossil record is mostly teeth. This has led to speculation and misleading reconstructions based on little more than teeth, jaws and imagination.

Science Versus Shark Week

New research re-examining the fossil record suggests that the ferocious Megalodon may have looked less than a white shark and more like a sleek lemon shark with a smaller head and jaws. A 2025 study by Shimada et al. used a novel 2D body segmentation method to reconstruct Otodus megalodon’s anatomy, based on rare fossilized vertebrae and comparisons with over 100 ancient and modern sharks. The result? A sleeker, more hydrodynamic creature than the bulky brute of blockbuster legend. These researchers conclude that the energetics to keep a giant shark the girth of a white shark alive and constantly swimming would be highly inefficient and unviable. They conclude that the shark was leaner and sleeker, more like a modern day lemon shark in shape, than a white shark.

Fact: Megalodon may have reached 24.3 meters and weighed up to 94 tonnes, based on vertebral column reconstructions (Shimada et al., 2025).

Family Tree: Megalodon, Mako, and the Great White

While white sharks, Carcharodon carcharias were once thought to descend from megalodon, recent findings debunk this. In fact, Otodus megalodon likely shares a closer ancestry with modern-day mako sharks, specifically through a common lamnoid ancestor (Cooper et al., 2020). Both megalodon and makos fall under Lamniformes, but on different evolutionary branches.

“The similarities between megalodon and great whites—like tooth shape—are examples of convergent evolution, not lineage.”
— Body dimensions of the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon, Cooper et al., 2020

The Meg is Dead

By 3.6 million years ago, the planet entered a period of rapid cooling. Oceanic prey declined, nursery habitats vanished as sea levels dropped. At the same time, a new predator emerged—the great white shark. Smaller, more agile, and able to feed in groups may have competed with the Megalon for available food. Competition, climate, and habitat loss likely worked together to drive the mighty shark extinct (McCormack et al., 2022).

The JAWS Effect and the Real Cost

The legacy of Jaws is still felt today. White sharks became vilified, leading to decades of persecution. As The Conversation notes, new research has dispelled the “man-eater” myth and uncovered sharks’ vital role in ocean ecosystems. Sharks are not villains. They are apex predators critical for maintaining the balance of marine ecosystems. However, Dr. David Shiffman writes that the Jaws Effect has had a positive impact, and that more people now love sharks, are aware of shark conservation and want to help sharks than ever before. The field of shark science blossomed and may even have been created by the film, Shiffman notes.

Modern mako sharks, the closest living relatives of megalodon, are now critically endangered. With rampant overfishing, finning, and habitat loss, they may soon join the Meg in extinction unless we act swiftly.

“The fate that befell megalodon—climate change, food scarcity, competition—now threatens modern sharks at a far greater rate, with humans at the helm.”

Let’s Change the Narrative

By learning the true story of megalodon, we don’t just uncover the past—we gain insights to save today’s sharks. From makos to great whites, these animals are survivors of ancient oceans. Yet more attention is placed on the ferocity of sharks in the media, than that the modern-day descendants, shortfin makos are endangered and overfished globally.

Perhaps we need to see that the real monsters aren’t the sharks—we are, and the misconceptions we have about sharks.

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