Megalodon Diets, Teeth Sensitivity and a Bunch of Vaccine News
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Happy Monday, listeners. It may technically still be spring, but with Memorial Day firmly in the rearview mirror and June upon us, let's be real. It's spiritually summer in the Northern Hemisphere, and we hope you're enjoying it. For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Feldman. Let's kick off the month with a quick roundup of some recent science news you may have missed.

First, a measles update. The good news is that the massive outbreak we've been following for the last few months in Texas seems to be slowing down, though it certainly isn't over. While cases in the West Texas-centered outbreak appeared to be leveling off last week, there have been other concerning incidents of recent measles exposure around the U.S. In mid-May, someone attended a Shakira concert at MetLife Stadium while contagious. Also in mid-May, a traveler with measles flew through the Denver airport.

Meanwhile, Canada and Mexico are both dealing with measles outbreaks of their own. A public health doctor told the CBC that Ontario is now reporting more measles cases every week than it previously saw in a decade. Health officials told ABC News and other outlets that they think an increase in vaccination rates contributed to the slowdown of the Texas outbreak.

That leads me to a big caveat in the good news about measles case counts. Last week, Texas lawmakers approved a bill that would make it easier for parents to get exemptions for standard vaccinations against illnesses such as measles, polio, and whooping cough when enrolling their kids in school. There's already a legal process in place that allows parents to skip vaccinating their children based on religious and personal beliefs, which requires them to contact state officials to request a physical form by mail.

During the 2023-2024 fiscal year, parents filed almost 153,000 exemption requests, which was almost double the number of requests seen in 2019. The proposed new law, which was still pending approval from the governor as of the time of our recording on Thursday, would allow parents to download the required form instantly using a computer or smartphone, making the process quicker and easier.

And speaking of vaccines, last Tuesday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend COVID vaccines for children or pregnant people without underlying health conditions. This could impact whether insurance companies will pay for COVID vaccines, making it harder for people who want the jab to get it.

Stephen J. Fleischman, a physician who serves as president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, said in a statement that the organization was extremely disappointed by the announcement, citing OBGYN's firsthand knowledge of the danger of COVID infections during pregnancy and in newborns who can receive some protection via a pregnant parent's vaccine.

In less troubling vaccine news, officials in England and Wales recently announced the world's first rollouts of a gonorrhea vaccine. The shot, called Forcimen B, isn't new. It's used in a number of countries globally to prevent meningococcal disease in infants, children, and other high-risk groups. Because the bacteria that causes meningococcal disease is closely related to the one that causes gonorrhea, the proteins in the shot also provide some protection against the STI.

Studies suggest the vaccine is roughly 30 to 40 percent effective against gonorrhea. That might not sound like a huge deal, but given the rise of antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea, experts say the jab could have a big impact.

Now we'll slide from health news into animal news with a study that's right smack dab in the middle. According to the authors of a recent Nature paper, if you have sensitive teeth, you might be able to blame an ancient armored fish. Which you're probably already doing, right? The research suggests that dentin, the layer of material just beneath the enamel of our teeth that encases the soft dental pulp, first evolved in fish exoskeletons hundreds of millions of years ago.

Back then, dentin was contained in bumps along the tough, bony skin of armored fish. Just like modern invertebrates with exoskeletons, these fish would have needed some sensitivity in their shell-like outer layer so they could pick up information about the waters they swam through, such as temperature and pressure. So it's possible the unpleasant zap of pain you might sometimes feel while drinking ice water is an evolutionary holdover from a time when sensitive dentin helped fish navigate the world.

In other toothy animal news, a study published last Monday in Earth and Planetary Science Letters attempts to puzzle out the dietary habits of the long-extinct megalodon. These sharks, which have reached near-mythical status thanks mostly to the hard work of Jason Statham, may have grown up to about 80 feet long, with teeth that could reach roughly 7 inches. One 2022 study estimated that megalodons would have needed to consume more than 98,000 kilocalories a day to sustain themselves.

That certainly suggests the sharks ate some massive sea creatures during the almost 20 million year period when they dominated the ocean. And this new study doesn't dispute that. Scientists have plenty of massive fossilized bite marks to prove it. But a close look at the zinc content of megalodon teeth suggests that the predators weren't too picky about the place their meals occupied on the food chain.

This paints a picture of an opportunistic carnivore that often munched on relatively small critters and that probably had lots of overlap with other, smaller predators. One of the researchers told CNN that the study supports the theory that the Megalodon's eventual competition for food with the sleeker, likely more nimble Great White may have contributed to the prehistoric creature's extinction.

That's all for this week's Science News Roundup. We'll be back on Wednesday with a look inside a shocking investigation about the Dakota Access Pipeline. Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Fultman, along with Fondam Wongi, Kelso Harper, Naima Marci, and Jeff Dalvisio. This episode was edited by Alex Sagiara. Shana Poses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news. For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a great week!