3D modeling of giant megalodon shark reveals clues to the life of the super-predator that ruled the oceans 20 million years ago

• Scientists have used fossils to understand the lives of ancient megalodon sharks.
• They've discovered it weighed the same as ten elephants and could swim faster than the sharks we have today.

Scientists have used fossil evidence to understand better the lives of ancient megalodon sharks, which they have found could have consumed a killer whale-sized meal in just five bites.

The 3D models created for the study, published on Wednesday in the Science Advances journal, have found that the giant megalodon sharks measure 50 feet in total, roughly three times the size of the great white sharks we know today.

The sharks, alive roughly 23 million to 2.6 million years ago, would have weighed in at the equivalent of around ten elephants, or 70 tons.

As a result of this new research, they know the colossal fish swam faster than the sharks of today and would roam the oceans for months after feasting on ocean creatures using their teeth, each the size of a human fist.

Co-author of the study John Hutchinson, from the Royal Veterinary College in England, described the beast as a "super-predator," saying there is nothing really matching it," AP reports.

Catalina Pimiento, a paleontologist with the University of Zurich and Swansea University in Wales, told AP there were sparse resources to create the models because the megalodon did not fossilize well.

She said they had to use a rare collection of vertebrae at a Belgium museum since the 1860s.