SIMPLIFYING THE METHODS - BODY LENGTH ESTIMATES FOR CARCHAROCLES MEGALODON USING ASSOCIATED TOOTH SETS AND JAW WIDTH RELATED DATA FROM GREAT WHITE SHARKS AND MAKOS

Since the first time a Megalodon shark tooth was found and identified as such, the question of the actual size of one of the Neogene top predators was the subject of imaginative speculation and scientific investigation. Both the results and the methods that are used to determine the size led to enormous dimensions in each case but are still quite diverse and bear a high potential for uncertainty. The problem with the recently most used estimation methods like those from Gottfried (1996) and Shimada (2002) is that they make body length estimates based on isolated teeth rather than entire dentitions. After testing the validity of the body length estimates from Shimada, which is the most accepted at the moment, by using several associated dentitions from C. megalodon, we noticed an extreme variability of the body length estimates depending on the tooth position in the jaw (Perez et al, 2016). In fact, especially estimates from lateral teeth were extremely variable and estimates from posterior teeth also varied significantly. The circumstance that we have this huge range in estimates makes it obvious that the teeth proportions of Megalodon don't correlate with that of the living Great White Shark. Subject of the studies presented in this poster is the use of the sum of the crown width of teeth from associated tooth sets as a measure for the related width of the entire jaw. Then we use this relation for a body length estimate based on the jaw proportions derived from appropriate data from modern Great White sharks and Makos. Moreover, this study is a positive example of successful collaboration between professional and amateur paleontologists, one of the priorities of the NSF funded FOSSIL project.