{"id":3061,"date":"2026-09-03T21:24:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/ten-million-years-ago-this-giant-piranha-had-a-bite-stronger-than-a-great-white-shark\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T21:24:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T20:24:51","slug":"ten-million-years-ago-this-giant-piranha-had-a-bite-stronger-than-a-great-white-shark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/ten-million-years-ago-this-giant-piranha-had-a-bite-stronger-than-a-great-white-shark\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Million Years Ago, This Giant Piranha Had a Bite Stronger Than a Great White Shark"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In 2009, scientists turned their attention to the fossilized remains of a formidable prehistoric creature: the megapiranha that swam in the warm waters of South America around 8 to 10 million years ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Megapiranha paranensis<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Unearthed from the Argentine Paran\u00e1 geological formation at the dawn of the 20th century, this fossil <\/strong>of Megapiranha paranensis<\/em> was identified in the 1980s as a fragment of an upper jaw. Featuring three large, pointed teeth, the specimen underwent a detailed study a few decades later. Paleontologist Alberto Cione and his colleagues noted at the time a zigzag arrangement, appearing halfway between the dentition of contemporary piranhas and that of related species with a markedly different diet.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe observe only one row of teeth in piranhas, compared with two in pacus, which are essentially herbivores,\u201d<\/em> explained the authors of the study, published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Because there are so few specimens of M. paranensis<\/em>, its measurements remain debated. The 2009 study concluded the creature could measure more than a meter in length and weigh about a human, while later work estimated its length at around 70 centimeters and its weight at about ten kilograms.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that this giant piranha possessed a formidable bite. Biomechanical simulations estimated a bite force ranging from 1,240 to 4,749 newtons for M. paranensis<\/em>, sufficient to break bones. In the highest estimate, for a 73-kilogram specimen, the bite force would have exceeded that of a three-tonne great white shark.<\/p>\n

Read also<\/span> In 1888, tens of thousands of sheep fled that night in Oxfordshire, with no explanation found to this day<\/span><\/section>\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

Powerful Jaws<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today, piranhas still stand out for their fearsome bite. Living mainly in the basins of the Amazon and Orinoco and weighing just over a kilogram, Serrasalmus rhombeus<\/em> exhibits a bite force of 320 newtons, the strongest ever measured in a modern bony fish.<\/p>\n

This feat is closely linked to its powerful chewing muscles, which account for more than 2% of its body weight.<\/p>\n

Between 2 and 4 million years ago, South America also housed the largest rodent known to science, whose bite would have been sufficient to break a human femur.<\/p>\n

Read also<\/span> On a predator-free island, reindeer populations exploded before losing 99% of their herd in a single winter<\/span><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3062,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[356,536,299,446,2261,301,1031,1801,300,447],"class_list":["post-3061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-bite","tag-giant","tag-great","tag-million","tag-piranha","tag-shark","tag-stronger","tag-ten","tag-white","tag-years","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-50"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3063,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions\/3063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.farmersforum.ie\/trends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}