Small whales, other marine mammals and perhaps other sharks all enter the story.
To investigate what Otodus megalodon ate, we can follow bite marks on bones and chemical signals preserved inside teeth. Some fossils even allow us to put a name to an animal that encountered those formidable jaws.
MEET PISCOBALAENA NANA
Piscobalaena nana was a small extinct baleen whale from Peru. In a 2017 study, Alberto Collareta and colleagues described marine mammal remains from the Pisco Formation bearing bite marks attributed to megalodon. Among them were remains identified as this particular whale.
For an animal we usually picture tackling giants, a smaller whale might seem an unambitious choice. Yet a large predator need not pursue the largest available prey. The researchers proposed that relatively small marine mammals were important food for adult megalodon along this ancient coast. [1]
There is one detail the fossils cannot settle: whether these animals were hunted or scavenged. Tooth marks record feeding, but the fragmentary bones do not reveal how the meal began.
DOLPHINS AND THE BITE NEAR THE TAIL
Fossils from Maryland and North Carolina provide another striking image: small toothed-whale vertebrae with deep gouges on opposing sides. Those gouges tell of a terrible end for those whales as they swam through our ancient seas. Researchers interpreted the marks as the result of bones being forced between adjacent megatooth-shark teeth. It is a rather horrifying thought.
These vertebrae came from the narrow region just ahead of the tail flukes. Biting there could disable a swimming animal, although scavenging could not be ruled out. The authors attributed the clearest examples to megalodon or its close relative Otodus chubutensis. The whales themselves were not identified to species. [2]
For a sense of their appearance, the paper illustrates the long-snouted dolphin Xiphiacetus bossi. It is a useful comparison, rather than the confirmed identity of the bitten animals.
OTHER ANIMALS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
The Pisco ecosystem also included the small dolphin Brachydelphis mazeasi and the fish-eating beaked whale Messapicetus gregarius. Both offer good subjects for illustrations of the smaller cetaceans sharing these ancient seas.
They are plausible prey candidates, but that is an ecological inference: the specimens discussed here do not demonstrate that megalodon ate either species. We do not have fossil bite marks on their fossil remains but it seems likely that they were lurking on that ancient lunch menu as they shared waters with these mighty predators. [3]
WHAT THE TEETH REVEAL
In 2022, nitrogen-isotope research placed sampled megalodon exceptionally high in ancient food webs, consistent with eating other predators. Zinc-isotope studies offer further evidence of feeding relationships.
A 2025 analysis of an early Miocene ecosystem suggested that megatooth sharks had considerable dietary flexibility, including variation between populations. Its material includes Otodus megalodon/chubutensis, so the conclusions concern these closely related sharks rather than megalodon alone. [4, 5]
These chemical signals tell us about feeding patterns. They do not identify the species in a particular meal.
A POSSIBLE BASKING-SHARK MEAL
A June 2026 study described basking-shark remains associated with giant megalodon vertebrae from Denmark. Fragments of gill rakers and tiny skin denticles led the authors to propose possible stomach contents.
If that interpretation is correct, another shark was on the menu. The fossil basking shark was not securely identified as today’s species, Cetorhinus maximus; a photograph of the living animal would illustrate the group, not the exact fossil prey. [6]
The most satisfying menu therefore comes with names where the evidence permits them, and questions where it does not. Piscobalaena nana gives us a particular whale. Gouged tail vertebrae bring us close to a feeding encounter. Tooth chemistry helps place those events within a much larger ocean food web.
Explore the series in Megalodon: A Guide to the Giant Shark, or examine the fossil teeth behind the bite marks.
RESEARCH AND FURTHER READING
- Collareta and colleagues (2017): Megalodon feeding traces on marine mammals from Peru. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.01.001.
- Godfrey and colleagues (2018): Megatooth-shark bite marks on toothed-whale tail vertebrae. Figures 1–3 show the fossils; Figure 4 illustrates Xiphiacetus bossi.
- Collareta and colleagues (2021): The ancient Pisco marine ecosystem. Figure 9F–G shows a Piscobalaena nana skeleton with shark bite marks; these particular marks should not automatically be assigned to megalodon. DOI: 10.3390/jmse9111188.
- Kast and colleagues (2022): Nitrogen isotopes and megatooth-shark trophic levels.
- McCormack and colleagues (2025): Miocene food webs and dietary flexibility in megatooth sharks.
- Shimada and colleagues (2026): Danish vertebrae and associated basking-shark remains. DOI: 10.26879/1674.
