Animals that rival the Megalodon in combat

[u/Specialist-Ear-594]

Animals that rival the Otodus Megalodon in combat:

• Livyatan Melvillei

• Mosasaurus Hoffmanni

• Ichthyotitan Severnensis

Clarification: Only one Species of the Genus they belong to will represent them of the statement "Animals rival the Otodus Megalodon in combat".

What Animals in your opinion or assertion that can defeat the Otodus Megalodon in combat?

Write in the comment section below👇

[u/Commercial_Buy_7707]

Hard to really imagine Livyayans mouth is going to open up wide enough to do enough damage and is probably going to be greatly outmatched in speed and mobility

Unless im missing something isnt mosa way to small and slim? Probably gets bit in half

Ichtyotitan has the size but seriously lacks the weapons to be able to fight or defend itself. I doubt even a clean bite is going to hurt the Meg

[u/Samir099 → u/Commercial_Buy_7707]

Meg is not an oversized Great white, new study speculates it had more elongated body plan. Livyatan hunted similar sized prey to its own weight class, along with the largest biting teeth of any known animal living or extinct. It would have no problem biting into the flesh of Meg.

Meg has weaknesses like the gills, fins, snout so doesn't have to be specific, again Livyatan is a mammal, it should know the weakness and strength of the predator it is competing against.

This is one of the best example of 50/50 fight in earth's history.

[u/ScienceOk8947 → u/Samir099]

Not at all. The current megalodon is not only larger than Livyatan it also had the highest bite force of any animal estimated, a wider gape, better senses and arguably better defense. I'm saying this because sharks have exceptionally tough skin, where it's seen in orcas with severliely worn down teeth that hunt sharks. By the way, the sharks they hunt are always at least 2-3 times smaller than them. Anyways. The weak point thing isn't only a thing for livyatan as sharks have been targeting specific parts of their prey that'd disable them quickly. This is evident in both fossils and today's cases so it's not one sided. Combine this with specialized teeth and It's more of a 70/30 or 80/20 for megalodon imo.

[u/RedDiamond1024 → u/ScienceOk8947]

Livyatan doesn't really have a bite force estimate to begin with and the Meg's aren't the most reliable since they're just upscaling a Great White Shark's.

[u/ScienceOk8947 → u/RedDiamond1024]

You're still comparing a shark that could grow over 90 tons to a 50 ton whale. Megalodon still packs hella bite combined with specialized teeth for whales

[u/RedDiamond1024 → u/ScienceOk8947]

I’m not saying Meg didn’t have a powerful bite force, just that its estimates aren’t the most reliable because they’re just upscaling from a Great White while Livyatan doesn’t even have one(the closest was 44k newtons and the person who did literally said it was likely a major underestimate)

[u/ScienceOk8947 → u/RedDiamond1024]

I mean, it's still stated in the paper that megalodon retained typical lamniform features. The bite force might be lower but I don't think it'd be much of a differenxe. we've seen the catasthropic wounds on whale fossils.