As a matter of fact, Megalodon was much smaller than Hollywood makes it out to be.
That second image is from the BBC's Chased by Sea Monsters; a three-part series about Nigel Marvin going back in time to see prehistoric monsters. The first image is a popular internet picture. While the BBC did an awful lot of speculating when they made Chased by Sea Monsters, their depiction of Megalodon was more realistic than popular Hollywood movies and popular imagery show them. And frankly, the biggest carnivorous shark that's ever lived would not survive for very long if it were as big as they are shown in the pictures.
Why is that? Well, a creature that big needs to eat a lot. And when you're talking about a creature like Megalodon, they need to eat large prey; in this case, large whales. Yes, Megalodon ate whales. These sharks lived in warm tropical and sub-tropical waters. These waters attracted small fish, which attracted larger fish, which attracted whales, which attracted sharks. Large whales have blubber which is rich in fat and other nutrients which provide enough energy to help Megalodon function. All these popular pictures of Megalodon chasing down human is ridiculous because humans would not provide an adequate source of food for such a large fish. In fact Megalodon would have to feed constantly, which is probably not what it would really wants to do. And it would not have much room to go.
Which brings me to the next point; a creature the size of Megalodon needs a huge territory for hunting its prey. And a shark that's as big as Hollywood makes it out to be would not have a territory big enough for it to even move well enough to attack. Many paleontologists believe that Megalodon may have used hunting techniques similar to the Great White of our day. That is to say, that the shark would dive down deep when it spots prey, and then shoot up and attack the prey from below. A shark that is as big as the media portrays it, could not possibly pull that stunt of; at least not very well.
Finally, Megalodon needed to eat blubber. The whales it hunted had thick layers of blubber as insulation. In fact, it is believed that Megalodon became extinct when the whales it hunted moved to the colder waters around the poles where there was plenty of fish. Their thick blubber would have protected them from the cold temperatures, whereas Megalodon would have had no protection from the cold at all. Anyhow, that blubber is rich in fat, and Megalodon needed that fat for energy. Humans have virtually no fat at all when compared to whales. We don't have enough to provide the 25-foot-reaching seal-loving great white shark with enough energy, let alone a sixty foot Megalodon.
That's why the media fails at portraying Megalodon well. It goes for the sensational, rather the facts. Those images supposedly of Charcharodon Megalodon are really just an overblown great white shark. Get the species right, please! And don't make a predator bigger than it was supposed to be.
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