Bretton Kent featured in National Geographic special on Monster Sharks

Mon, Oct 12, 2009

Megalodon reconstruction, Calvert Marine Museum. Dr. Bretton K. Kent, director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Entomology, is featured along with Dr. Stephen J. Godfrey, Curator of Paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, in a National Geographic Prehistoric Predators episode called "Monster Shark." Dr. Godfrey discovers a 10-12 million year old giant shark tooth after ten years of searching, and he and Dr. Kent discuss the unique properties of this Megalodon shark fossil and what it tells us about evolutionary adaptations in sharks.

The Megalodon was the biggest predator to ever swim the oceans of the world. For 20 million years, this ferocious 50-ton shark with a 7-foot jaw and seven inch teeth terrorized the creatures of the seas from Australia to South America and the coasts of North America. Not even the giant whales of the time were safe from this apex predator. Now, nearly 2 million years after Megalodon disappeared from earth, scientists will rebuild this monster shark.