Ptychodus is about 8.0× longer by these reference values.
Ptychodus uses a 9.7 m upper reference, compared with 1.22 m for Horn shark. A clean mass ratio is not shown because at least one weight is not reliably reconstructed.
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; Ptychodus by recent reconstructions approach 9.7 m / 32 ft. Weight is a rounded adult reference. A body outline is rare; length estimates can change with new fossils.
Bite evidence
Horn shark: Experiments also measured bites; the displayed range is the study's theoretical maximum from front to rear teeth. Ptychodus: Hard-prey specialization does not justify inventing a force number.
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. Flattened crushing teeth—not knife-like teeth—defined this huge shark.
TRACE THE CLAIMS