Britannica Sources used in this answer

How did megalodon regulate its body temperature?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

Illustration of a female megalodon shark (Carcharocles megalodon) with a faint human scuba diver silhouette in the background for scale, highlighting the shark's massive size. Measurement bars at the bottom show 3 meters and 9 feet for reference. — megalodon Megalodon (*Carcharocles megalodon*) was a species of shark that lived during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs (23.03 million to 2.58 million years ago).

Megalodon is believed to have regulated its body temperature through a process known as regional endothermy, a form of warm-bloodedness similar to that found in modern great white sharks.1

Unlike most fish, which are cold-blooded, megalodon generated heat through the contraction of its swimming muscles. This heat raised the temperature of specific regions of the shark's body above that of the surrounding water. This physiological adaptation likely provided the shark with a significant advantage, allowing it to hunt and remain active in colder waters that would otherwise be inaccessible to it.12