Britannica Sources used in this answer

Where was a megalodon nursery discovered near Panama?

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).

A 2010 study identified a megalodon nursery along the Panamanian coast. This site was characterized by the presence of juvenile teeth representing various stages of life.1

Scientists believe this shallow, warm-water environment provided young megalodons with access to a diverse array of smaller prey while helping them avoid larger predators, such as hammerhead sharks. As the young sharks matured, they likely moved into deeper waters to hunt larger animals.12