I hesitate to call the sharks “little.” They certainly were not. Based upon the measurements of their teeth, paleontologist Catalina Pimiento and colleagues estimated that most of the Otodus megalodon in the Panama fossil site were six feet long or longer, the smallest being about my size. But compared to the adult sharks, fifty feet or more from nose to tail tip, the chompers were clearly young ones that lived along the edge of the ancient Caribbean Sea.

The sharks must have known storms. Hurricanes and heavy thunderstorms that diluted the salt of the ocean water and made waves rise. Young megalodon, snapping up fish and sea turtles in the shallows, must have been occasionally buffeted by angry waves in waters turned gray by heavy clouds. How did they cope?

Baby white sharks might give us a clue. In 2023, Tropical Storm Hilary swept up from Baja toward San Diego, dropping more than five inches of rain among wind gusts that roared at more than 80 miles per hour. The storm’s late summer arrival meant that it passed over the nearshore nursery areas where the year’s young great whites hang out before becoming one-ton seal eaters.