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The megalodon was the apex predator of its day

WBUR | By Here & Now Newsroom
Published June 3, 2026 at 12:01 PM EDT

The megalodon was the apex predator of its day, eating whatever it wanted and roaming Earth’s oceans for millions of years. Some were four times the size of today’s great whites.

Now, a scale model of the giant shark sits in the Smithsonian.

Curator Nick Pyenson joins Here & Now‘s Robin Young to talk about why Americans remain fascinated with megalodons.

A fossil megalodon tooth. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Office of Education and Outreach)
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A fossil megalodon tooth. (Courtesy of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History’s Office of Education and Outreach)

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2026 WBUR
Here & Now Newsroom