MEGALODONS & GIANT SLOTHS
They came after the dinosaurs
An episode from the series MYSTERIES OF THE GIANTS
Synopsis
For more than 20 million years, the Earth’s oceans were ruled by a gigantic,16-meter,60-ton shark: the Megalodon. This super-predator with enormous teeth ate whales and dolphins to fuel its titanic organism. It went into decline because of the climate cooling and with the arrival of competitors: killer whales hunting in well-organized pods. Finally, the Megalodon became extinct 2.5 million years ago.
On land, another huge animal was also hit by climate change. Giant sloths as tall as elephants, 200 times bigger than their modern cousins, appeared in South America 10 million years ago. The first humans would have seen the last of these colossal sloths which were subsequently wiped out by a sudden period of interglacial warming.