Megalodon is about 13× longer by these reference values.
Megalodon uses a 15.3 m upper reference, compared with 1.22 m for Horn shark. Megalodon's weight reference is about 4800× 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 THE DATA CAN SAY
Size is not the whole animal.
Length and weight
Horn shark is represented by reported to 1.22 m / 4 ft; Megalodon by evidence-based upper estimate 14.1–15.3 m / 46–50 ft. Weight is a rounded adult reference. No complete skeleton exists; 15.3 m is an evidence-based maximum from museum specimens, not a tape measurement.
Bite evidence
Horn shark: Experiments also measured bites; the displayed range is the study's theoretical maximum from front to rear teeth. Megalodon: Finite-element scaling produced a range, not a directly measured bite.
Living versus extinct
At least one animal is known from fossils. Fossil length, weight and bite estimates depend on which living analogues and scaling equations researchers choose.
Ecology changes the matchup
Its rear teeth crush hard prey, and its bite mechanics have been tested directly and modeled. Nearly every whole-body number is reconstructed from teeth and comparisons with living sharks.
TRACE THE CLAIMS