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Article: Prehistoric Big Tooth was king of the predators; Giant shark's bite beat top dinosaur.(News)
- Article from:
- Cape Argus (South Africa)
- Article date:
- August 5, 2008
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2008 Independent News & Media PLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By JOHN YELD
Environment & Science Writer
If you're unlucky enough to be chomped by a great white shark - and you have a much greater chance of being electrocuted by your toaster or being killed in a dog attack - you'll be subjected to a very impressive mechanical force.
But you may still count yourself lucky that you weren't living between 1.5 million and 18 million years ago, and that the creature doing the biting wasn't "Big Tooth", the gigantic fossil shark Carcharodon megalodon.
Believed to have been the most fearsome predator ever to have lived on Earth, this creature's bite was up to 10 times more powerful than that of its ...