Megalodon is about 2.4× longer by these reference values.
Megalodon uses a 15.3 m upper reference, compared with 6.4 m for Greenland shark. Megalodon's weight reference is about 47× heavier.
ON THE SAME SCALE
Human. Bus. Whale.
Pick your reference.
Length bars use upper comparison values and do not show body depth, tail proportion or typical adult size. A long thresher tail, for example, does not equal whale-shark body mass.
THE NUMBERS
Side by side.
WHAT SETS THEM APART
More than a size contest.
Length and weight
Greenland shark is represented by confirmed to about 6.4 m / 21 ft; Megalodon by evidence-based upper estimate 14.1–15.3 m / 46–50 ft. Age and upper mass involve uncertainty; length is better documented. No complete skeleton exists; 15.3 m is an evidence-based maximum from museum specimens, not a tape measurement.
Habitat and diet
Greenland shark: Cold North Atlantic and Arctic waters; fish, carrion and marine mammals. Megalodon: Warm and temperate seas worldwide; large marine mammals, turtles and fishes.
Bite evidence
Greenland shark: TuffShark found no defensible species-level bite-force estimate to display. Megalodon: Finite-element scaling produced a range, not a directly measured bite.
Fossils change the certainty
At least one animal is known from fossils. Fossil length, weight and bite estimates depend on which living analogues and scaling equations researchers choose.
TRACE THE CLAIMS