Megalodon has long been a favourite of horror movie writers - but how big was it really? Well, its size has certainly been exaggerated but this thing was still pretty darn big.
They lived between 28 and 1.5 million years ago, and are widely regarded as one of the most powerful predators in vertebrate history.
This graphic should give you a good idea of both conservative and maximum estimated sizes of Megalodon compared to a humans and modern shark species - as you can see, even if the conservative estimate were correct one of these things could quite happily have swallowed you whole.
The green shark in this image, Carcharodon carcharias is better known as the great white shark.
Rhincodon typus is whale shark, a slow moving filter feeder.
They lived between 28 and 1.5 million years ago, and are widely regarded as one of the most powerful predators in vertebrate history.
This graphic should give you a good idea of both conservative and maximum estimated sizes of Megalodon compared to a humans and modern shark species - as you can see, even if the conservative estimate were correct one of these things could quite happily have swallowed you whole.
The green shark in this image, Carcharodon carcharias is better known as the great white shark.
Rhincodon typus is whale shark, a slow moving filter feeder.