The Only Time In History When Megalodons Were Prey — Transcript

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1. 0:00The megalodon was indisputably the top
2. 0:03apex predator of its time. This isn't
3. 0:05debated by science, history, or anyone
4. 0:09with a brain. But being an apex predator
5. 0:12just means you have no natural
6. 0:14predators. It doesn't necessarily mean
7. 0:16you have zero predators. And it
8. 0:18definitely doesn't mean you can't be
9. 0:20hurt. Being top of the food chain means
10. 0:22that nothing above you eats you. But
11. 0:24what about the things beside you? See,
12. 0:27the prehistoric era, the megalodon lived
13. 0:30in what was called the mosense. And
14. 0:32during this time period, there were
15. 0:33exactly two apex predators at the top of
16. 0:36the food chain. One, a giant shark, and
17. 0:39the other one, a giant whale. This was
18. 0:43the Livotan, a whale that looks pretty
19. 0:45similar to sperm whales, but was
20. 0:47effectively what you'd get if you put
21. 0:49one on steroids. Their teeth were double
22. 0:52the size, and they had a whole another
23. 0:54row, too. And unlike sperm whales, they
24. 0:57were macro predators. Which means
25. 0:59instead of going after big squids or
26. 1:01being like other whales that only eat
27. 1:03plankton, lioton would hunt other
28. 1:06whales. Oddly enough, liotons were
29. 1:08actually shorter than sperm whales and
30. 1:10yet if they were still around today,
31. 1:12would absolutely destroy any sperm whale
32. 1:15in an even match. But how did they get
33. 1:17so strong? Why were they single-handedly
34. 1:20the only other animal megalodon wouldn't
35. 1:22approach? And what made them go extinct?
36. 1:27To find out, we have to go back 12
37. 1:29million years ago to the most violent
38. 1:32ocean in Earth's history. The full name
39. 1:34Livoton Melvilley was named after Herman
40. 1:37Melbilly, the guy who wrote Moby Dick.
41. 1:39Livoton stems from the same word that
42. 1:41means Leviathon. And it's not a
43. 1:43coincidence they sound kind of similar.
44. 1:46Scientists actually tried naming it
45. 1:48Leviathan Melville originally, but they
46. 1:50gave the name Leviathan to a
47. 1:51mammoth-like animal already, so they got
48. 1:54stuck with the knockoff name. But if
49. 1:56sperm whales were bigger, why were
50. 1:58scientists trying to give them such a
51. 2:00god-like name in the first place? See,
52. 2:02modern sperm whales can reach up to 60
53. 2:05or even 70 ft long, whereas the lioton
54. 2:08is estimated to be around 45 to 57 ft.
55. 2:11So on paper, the modern version is
56. 2:14technically the giant one, but length
57. 2:17isn't everything. If you saw a sperm
58. 2:19whale in a lioton side to side, you
59. 2:21wouldn't be looking at the tail. You'd
60. 2:23just be looking at the mouth. The sperm
61. 2:25whale is long, sure, but it has a narrow
62. 2:28underslung jaw with tiny teeth that are
63. 2:30basically useless for combat. The
64. 2:32lioton, on the other hand, sacrificed
65. 2:34the extra length for sheer bulk and
66. 2:37power. It had a shorter, thicker skull
67. 2:39that was reinforced to withstand the
68. 2:41shock of ramming into other whales at
69. 2:43full speed. And this build is basically
70. 2:45what made the lioton completely
71. 2:47overpowered. They had the largest
72. 2:49functional teeth of any animal to ever
73. 2:52exist. Which doesn't mean tusks like
74. 2:54elephants or walruses have. These are
75. 2:56teeth designed for actual violence. Each
76. 2:59one was over a foot long, around 36 cm,
77. 3:02and nearly 5 in thick. This is how one
78. 3:05would look compared to a T-Rex tooth.
79. 3:08That's over double the size. And unlike
80. 3:10modern sperm whales, which only have
81. 3:12teeth on their bottom jaw, lioton had
82. 3:15massive teeth on the top and the bottom.
83. 3:18This is the biggest thing that points us
84. 3:20towards believing that liotons were
85. 3:22competing with megalodons. See, modern
86. 3:24sperm whales are suction feeders because
87. 3:26their job is to dive deep into the void,
88. 3:29find a gigantic squid, and basically
89. 3:31slurp it up like a slippery noodle. They
90. 3:33don't really need to chew, so they lost
91. 3:35their top teeth entirely. This is one of
92. 3:38the unique things you can see in nature.
93. 3:40You can predict an animal's diet without
94. 3:42ever seeing it eat solely based off its
95. 3:44mouth. Having teeth on both jaws allowed
96. 3:47liv to bite down on large prey and tear
97. 3:49massive chunks of flesh by thrashing its
98. 3:52head, which is pretty similar to the
99. 3:54death roll of a crocodile. So, they're
100. 3:56insanely overpowered and could actually
101. 3:58hunt other tanky animals. But the
102. 4:01obvious question now is who would win in
103. 4:03a fight between a megalodon and
104. 4:05Oliviaon? Well, as much as I'd like to
105. 4:07make up a sick story about these giants
106. 4:09absolutely mauling each other, I won't
107. 4:12just spout up a fake scenario based off
108. 4:14whatever vibes I feel. In reality, we
109. 4:17don't actually know who would win, and
110. 4:19we don't have any direct proof that they
111. 4:21fought. We still haven't found any
112. 4:23megalodon teeth in any of the Livoton
113. 4:26bones. But what we do know though is
114. 4:28that a battle would definitely not be
115. 4:30completely one-sided. Both of these
116. 4:32creatures were the biological limits of
117. 4:34ocean predators. They were
118. 4:36single-handedly the two most dangerous
119. 4:38predators to ever exist. And because of
120. 4:40that, realistically, a fight might just
121. 4:43kill them both. What likely happened is
122. 4:45this created some sort of prehistoric
123. 4:48cold war in the ocean. These animals
124. 4:50weren't smart like humans, but they
125. 4:52weren't dumb. attacking each other would
126. 4:54be for a reason, and that reason would
127. 4:56either be food itself or reducing
128. 4:59competition. If they did clash, it would
129. 5:02be the Cold War equivalent of a mutually
130. 5:04assured destruction. A megalodon bite
131. 5:06could crush the whale's ribs. But one
132. 5:09good chomp from a liveon could sever the
133. 5:11shark's pectoral fins or crush its
134. 5:13spine, leaving the shark immobile and
135. 5:16sinking. And in the ocean, if you can't
136. 5:18swim, you're dead. In reality, most
137. 5:21adults likely avoided each other at all
138. 5:24times because they both know that even
139. 5:26if one of them won the fight, there
140. 5:28would be no real winner. But animals
141. 5:30aren't always logical. At some point,
142. 5:32they must have fought, right? So, what
143. 5:34would happen if they did? Well, whales
144. 5:37are mammals, which means they are
145. 5:38warm-blooded. While the megalodon was
146. 5:40much more efficient than your average
147. 5:42goldfish, it still couldn't match the
148. 5:44sustained energy levels of a mammal.
149. 5:46Oliviaon could stay active, aggressive,
150. 5:49and fast for a much longer period of
151. 5:51time.
152. 5:51>> One hour later.
153. 5:53>> In a fight of endurance, the whale would
154. 5:55win. But endurance doesn't always matter
155. 5:58if the fight ends in one hit. Estimates
156. 6:00for the megalodon put it somewhere
157. 6:01between 50 to 60 ft long. Estimates for
158. 6:04the livon were 45 to 57 ft. So, in terms
159. 6:08of length, it's basically a draw. If you
160. 6:11saw them both while swimming, you
161. 6:13probably wouldn't be able to tell who's
162. 6:15longer without a measuring tape. And
163. 6:17even so, they'd probably eat you before
164. 6:19that point anyway. But wait is where
165. 6:21things get interesting. See, the
166. 6:23megalodon was built like a great white,
167. 6:25but thicker. It was stocky, robust, and
168. 6:29essentially a swimming wall of muscle.
169. 6:31Conservative estimates put the megalodon
170. 6:33anywhere from 50 to 70 tons, with some
171. 6:36scientists thinking the absolute largest
172. 6:38females could have reached over 100
173. 6:40tons. The Leviathon was only around 40
174. 6:44to 50 tons. This is interesting because
175. 6:46in modern day almost all whales are way
176. 6:49heavier than sharks. They're full of
177. 6:51blubber and other thick and dense ways
178. 6:53to keep their body intentionally
179. 6:55massive. Sharks benefit from being more
180. 6:58light and agile. It's strange because
181. 7:00the roles of these animals are almost
182. 7:02completely reversed. Livoton is much
183. 7:05sleeker and agile than the Meg, and the
184. 7:07Meg is heavier than the whale. Livoton
185. 7:09was also likely much smarter than the
186. 7:11Meg. But obviously, if you put a human
187. 7:13and a lion in a cage, intelligence
188. 7:15doesn't guarantee a win. In most cases,
189. 7:18most people suspect that a megalodon
190. 7:20would win about 55% of the time, but the
191. 7:22fight is extremely close. Unless we find
192. 7:25more evidence, we really just don't
193. 7:27know. The sizes of these animals are too
194. 7:30ambiguous, and the amount of force they
195. 7:32could deliver is just not exactly known
196. 7:34either. What we do know is they're both
197. 7:36big and deadly. They competed over early
198. 7:39baine whales, but it was usually easier
199. 7:41to just go after those instead of trying
200. 7:43to take another apex predator down. So,
201. 7:46when and why did these creatures
202. 7:48actually fight in a realistic case? Or
203. 7:51did they just side eyee each other the
204. 7:53entire time? The real violence happened
205. 7:56in the nursery. Basically, they were
206. 7:58spawn camping. See, megalodons didn't
207. 8:01just give birth anywhere. They had
208. 8:03specific nurseries, which were shallow,
209. 8:06warm coastal waters where the pups could
210. 8:07grow up safely away from the deep ocean
211. 8:10where the adults lived. And when I say
212. 8:12pups, I mean a baby that is already 6 ft
213. 8:15long and ready to kill. But to a full
214. 8:17grown leviaon, a 6 ft shark isn't a
215. 8:20threat. It's an easy meal. The whale
216. 8:22could use its size and sonar to pick off
217. 8:24the future apex predators before they
218. 8:26even hit their teenage years. It's the
219. 8:28ultimate strategy. Eliminate the
220. 8:30competition before they get big enough
221. 8:32to bite you back. And you also get a
222. 8:34free snack. But it went both ways.
223. 8:36Livoton was a whale, which means it was
224. 8:39a mammal, and mammals have to nurse
225. 8:41their young. Sperm whales are known for
226. 8:43having extremely strong family bonds,
227. 8:45traveling in pods to protect the calves.
228. 8:48If a calf strayed a little too far from
229. 8:49mum or if the pod got separated in a
230. 8:52storm, that calf is done. And this is
231. 8:55likely where the megalodon had the
232. 8:56advantage. While libons probably had to
233. 8:59rely on brute force and gang violence to
234. 9:01stay safe, the megalodon was a solitary
235. 9:04ambush predator. It could wait in the
236. 9:06murky depths, completely invisible until
237. 9:08the calf was vulnerable. While we'd like
238. 9:11to imagine these guys clashing in the
239. 9:13ocean like Godzilla versus Kong, the
240. 9:15reality is probably a lot darker. The
241. 9:18war between the Megalodon and the
242. 9:19Livoton was likely a war of attrition,
243. 9:22killing each other's children to ensure
244. 9:24their own species stayed on top. But
245. 9:26eventually, the war ended. And guess who
246. 9:28won. Surprisingly, neither of them?
247. 9:31Everyone else did. Around 3 million
248. 9:33years ago, the Earth started to change.
249. 9:36The planet cooled down. The early baine
250. 9:38whales they both ate couldn't handle the
251. 9:40cold. So they started dying out or
252. 9:42evolving into massive open ocean whales
253. 9:45we see today. Like blue whales which
254. 9:47migrated to the freezing poles to feed.
255. 9:50The levoton and the megalodon were
256. 9:52stuck. They were metabolic furnaces that
257. 9:54needed warm water to survive. They
258. 9:56couldn't follow the food into the cold.
259. 9:58So the megalodon starved to death
260. 10:00because it was too big to chase the fast
261. 10:02new whales. The levoton starved to death
262. 10:05because its food source literally
263. 10:06vanished. And who survived? Well, for
264. 10:09one, the sperm whale. And all the other
265. 10:11ones who weren't trying to be the king.
266. 10:14They just dove deep, ate squid, and
267. 10:16minded their own business. It's the
268. 10:18ultimate evolutionary irony. The
269. 10:21biggest, strongest, and deadliest
270. 10:23animals are actually the most fragile.
271. 10:25You become so specialized at killing one
272. 10:27specific thing that when the world
273. 10:29changes even a little bit, you're the
274. 10:31first one to go extinct. Your entire
275. 10:34existence as an apex predator is reliant
276. 10:36on your non-apex prey. But this rivalry
277. 10:39actually teaches us something incredibly
278. 10:41important about how nature works. The
279. 10:43ecological ceiling. See, there is a
280. 10:46reason we don't have 100 ft sharks or
281. 10:49200 ft killer whales today. It's not
282. 10:51because they couldn't evolve. It's
283. 10:53because the math doesn't check out. The
284. 10:55livon and megalodon represent the
285. 10:58absolute upper limit of how big a
286. 11:00predator can get before the laws of
287. 11:01thermodynamics destroys your existence.
288. 11:04To be a fast, active hunter at that size
289. 11:07requires a caloric intake that is
290. 11:09frankly stupid. You need an ocean that
291. 11:12is essentially an all you can eat buffet
292. 11:14that never closes. And the second that
293. 11:16buffet runs out, you crash hard. It's
294. 11:19actually incredibly rare for an
295. 11:21ecosystem to support two super predators
296. 11:24of this size at the exact same time.
297. 11:26Usually, nature follows the rules. There
298. 11:28can only be one. The fact the megalodon
299. 11:30and the lioton coexisted for millions of
300. 11:32years is a testament to just how
301. 11:34insanely rich and dangerous the minene
302. 11:37ocean really was. It was a biological
303. 11:39anomaly. But even though the monsters
304. 11:41are gone, the game is still being
305. 11:44played. If you look at the ocean today,
306. 11:46we see a spooky echo of this ancient
307. 11:48rivalry. We have the great white shark,
308. 11:50a solitary, cold-blooded ambush
309. 11:53predator. And we have the orca, a
310. 11:55warm-blooded, highly intelligent
311. 11:57pod-based mammal. Today, the fight is a
312. 12:00bit more one-sided and the mammal wins.
313. 12:02When orcas show up, great whites flee.
314. 12:05It's basically a low-budget reenactment
315. 12:07of the Leviton versus Megalodon War,
316. 12:10just scaled down for modern audiences.
317. 12:12So, what else survived? Well, as I
318. 12:15mentioned, sperm whales still stayed
319. 12:17alive, but they fill a completely
320. 12:19different niche than leviton. Both the
321. 12:21levoton and the modern sperm whale have
322. 12:23this massive tank of waxy oil in their
323. 12:25foreheads. It's what gives them that
324. 12:27weird boxy head shape, but they use it
325. 12:30for two very different game modes. For
326. 12:32the modern sperm whale, this organ is a
327. 12:34flashlight. They hunt in the midnight
328. 12:36zone where sunlight doesn't exist. Giant
329. 12:39squids are fast, slippery, and
330. 12:41invisible. So, they use spermacity organ
331. 12:43to focus sound waves into a narrow beam,
332. 12:46like a biological sniper scope to see
333. 12:48the squid in the dark. It's purely for
334. 12:51navigation and detection. But the livon
335. 12:53lived near the surface. The water was
336. 12:56bright. It didn't need a flashlight to
337. 12:58see a 30-foot whale. So, why keep the
338. 13:01massive organ? Well, this is
339. 13:02speculative, but it's possible for the
340. 13:04levoton, it wasn't a flashlight, but
341. 13:07actually a flashbang. By blasting a
342. 13:09concentrated burst of sound at an enemy,
343. 13:11like a megalodon or a fleing whale, it
344. 13:13could be loud enough to physically stun
345. 13:15them or cause some sort of sensory
346. 13:17overload. This wouldn't just be hearing
347. 13:20a loud noise. This would be a sound wave
348. 13:22so intense it vibrates your water- fil
349. 13:25tissues, causing disorientation, nausea,
350. 13:28or even temporary paralysis. This is not
351. 13:31proven though. But if there was an
352. 13:33animal that were to use a biological
353. 13:35sonic weapon like this, Levitan would be
354. 13:37the number one candidate. It might have
355. 13:39only been against smaller animals,
356. 13:40though, and not in their fantasy battle
357. 13:42against megalodons. Still, the modern
358. 13:45sperm whale is not a complete downgraded
359. 13:47version of the levotan. They're
360. 13:49definitely not completely peaceful, and
361. 13:51it is currently still the largest tooth
362. 13:53predator on the entire planet. Yes, blue
363. 13:56whales are bigger, but they eat
364. 13:58microscopic krill. You aren't exactly
365. 14:00intimidated by a guy eating soup. They
366. 14:02resemble what levitons have to be today
367. 14:05to survive, which means dropping their
368. 14:07hyperaggression, but not all of it. For
369. 14:10the other animals that survived though,
370. 14:12oddly enough, it was most of the prey.
371. 14:14Blue whales, which are baen whales,
372. 14:16became even bigger than megalodons or
373. 14:18liotans did. Now they're basically
374. 14:21untouchable when fully grown to any
375. 14:23shark or predatory whale. The only
376. 14:25reason blue whales were even allowed to
377. 14:27get this big was because of the
378. 14:29extinction of the megalodon and lioton.
379. 14:31With the two bullies of the ocean gone,
380. 14:33the baine whales suddenly had access to
381. 14:36an unlimited food supply with zero
382. 14:38threats. Their limiter was broken. For
383. 14:40millions of years, there was a
384. 14:42biological size cap. If a whale tried to
385. 14:45grow massive and slow during the
386. 14:46meioene, it wasn't beneficial. It just
387. 14:49made you a more attractive dinner. Being
388. 14:51a 100 ft long slowmoving meat tube just
389. 14:54made you an easier target for the
390. 14:56megalodon. The predators were literally
391. 14:58eating the competition down to size.
392. 15:01Interestingly, if megalodons or liotan
393. 15:03were to encounter a blue whale today,
394. 15:05it's not super likely they would still
395. 15:07attack them. They're simply too big. The
396. 15:10baine whales got a few million years to
397. 15:12evolve without being held back. And now,
398. 15:15even if somehow megalodons were able to
399. 15:17come back, they might not be able to
400. 15:19take them down anymore. One strike from
401. 15:21a blue whale could render the megalodon
402. 15:23crippled for life. And even though
403. 15:25megalodons aren't super smart, they'd be
404. 15:27smart enough to realize they shouldn't
405. 15:29be going after prey that big. Of course,
406. 15:32this doesn't mean that blue whales would
407. 15:34hunt megalodons either. It would just be
408. 15:36the same battle of I'm ignoring you. But
409. 15:39as fun as it is to play fantasy
410. 15:40matchmakers with extinct monsters and
411. 15:42modern giants, there is a massive
412. 15:44problem with trying to figure out
413. 15:46exactly what happened back then. See,
414. 15:48the ocean is really, really good at
415. 15:51hiding the bodies. We still barely know
416. 15:53anything. We have never found a full
417. 15:55megalodon skeleton. We only have one
418. 15:57really good skull of Olivia. The
419. 15:59megalodon ruled the ocean for 20 million
420. 16:02years. Yet, because its skeleton was
421. 16:04made of cartilage, the same squishy
422. 16:06stuff in our ears, the ocean has removed
423. 16:08so much of the evidence of it ever being
424. 16:10around. We have the teeth, so we know it
425. 16:13could bite, but we have no idea how it
426. 16:15moved. Did it have massive petrol fins
427. 16:17to make tight turns like a fighter jet,
428. 16:19or was it built for straight line speed?
429. 16:21Without the cartilage, we're just
430. 16:23guessing the shape of the engine. And
431. 16:25for the lioton, the evidence we wish we
432. 16:27had is a soft tissue. See, we have the
433. 16:30skull with the massive basin on top. So,
434. 16:32we know it had a spermacity organ. We
435. 16:34know it had sonar. But because that
436. 16:36organ is made of wax and oil, it rots
437. 16:39away instantly. We don't actually know
438. 16:41how powerful that weapon was. Was it
439. 16:44just a flashlight to find prey in the
440. 16:46dark? Or do they use it like sperm
441. 16:48whales, but on an even more dangerous
442. 16:50scale, like a sonic cannon capable of
443. 16:52stunning a 50tonon shark? The difference
444. 16:54between a flashlight and a stun gun is
445. 16:56huge. And the answer dissolved millions
446. 16:58of years ago. The ocean is fantastic at
447. 17:01deleting evidence or just burying it
448. 17:03completely. There could be fossils
449. 17:05sitting at the bottom of the trench
450. 17:07right now that would prove these guys
451. 17:08got even bigger or that there was a
452. 17:10third player in the game that we don't
453. 17:12even know about yet. But if there's one
454. 17:14thing to take away from all this, it's
455. 17:15that the ancient ocean wasn't just some
456. 17:18peaceful, majestic circle of life Disney
457. 17:20movie. It was a war zone. A war that
458. 17:23even the top superpowers in it were too
459. 17:25scared to fight because of mutually
460. 17:27assured destruction. and then they got
461. 17:29mutually destructed. Anyways, at least
462. 17:32we can be thankful that we're not
463. 17:33getting spawn camped by giant sharks and
464. 17:35whales. Thank you for watching and if
465. 17:38you guys want to see something even
466. 17:39deadlier than both these animals, check
467. 17:41out our videos on brine pools here.