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How much food may a megalodon have eaten each day?

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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).

It is estimated that a megalodon may have consumed approximately 2,500 pounds (about 1,134 kg) of food per day.1

As an apex predator, the megalodon relied on a diet that included fish, seals, dolphins, and various species of whales. Scientists believe that baleen whales were a primary food source for these massive sharks.2134