A set of megalodon vertebrae that was believed to have been lost decades ago has been rediscovered in Denmark, according to ScienceDaily and The Conversation.
The fossils were originally thought to have been destroyed when they were moved in 1989 from the Geological Museum of Copenhagen, now part of the Natural History Museum of Denmark, to the Museum of Southern Jutland. Instead, a couple of the vertebrae were found sitting unrecognized on a museum shelf.
Researchers used the 11-million-year-old bones to revisit the size and growth of Otodus megalodon, the giant predatory shark that lived between 15 million and 3.5 million years ago. The study supports earlier estimates that the shark could have been more than 24 meters, or 79 feet, long.
Because shark skeletons are mostly cartilage, vertebrae are especially valuable for judging body size. The specimens found in Denmark are said to be the largest known vertebrae from O. megalodon, measuring about 23 centimeters, or 9 inches, across. The study also estimated that a newborn megalodon may have been about 3.6 meters, or 12 feet, long and could have lived for nearly a century.
