Ptychodus is about 2.2× longer by these reference values.
Ptychodus uses a 9.7 m upper reference, compared with 4.45 m for Shortfin mako. 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
Ptychodus is represented by recent reconstructions approach 9.7 m / 32 ft; Shortfin mako by reported to about 4.45 m / 14.6 ft. A body outline is rare; length estimates can change with new fossils. Record length and mass do not necessarily describe the same individual.
Bite evidence
Ptychodus: Hard-prey specialization does not justify inventing a force number. Shortfin mako: No directly comparable maximum bite-force estimate is used.
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
Flattened crushing teeth—not knife-like teeth—defined this huge shark. Speed is its signature; the biggest animals are unusual and hard to verify.
TRACE THE CLAIMS