The Megalodon is the ultimate killing machine of the sea, the giant ancestor of the great white. Feeding on Cachalots, he was 55 meters (180 feet), measuring from his teeth (they found all the teeth, so they put them together). A family of four people was a snack for the Megalodon. 55 kilometers per hour (34 miles per hour) being the slowest it went and 150 kilometers per hour (93 miles per hour) being the fastest.

In the past there have been a couple of reports of huge dark shadows just below the surface by people who were walking along shores. Marine biologist suspect that, if it was still alive, the most likeliest place it would stay was near the Marianne Trenches.

Since Cachalots can dive very deep it wouldn't suprise me. That is, were it still alive. No reports have been made in quite a few years, so either it has exinct, finally, it being a prehistoric animal, or it stay hidden, deep in the warmth of the Marianne Trenches, where humans are still unable to go, because of the pressure and the warmth there.

What do you think?

(The pictures are reconstructed and merely made to show the public how big Meg actually is or would have been)

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Anything's possible. I wouldn't rule it out just because we don't see them doesn't mean they're not there. Doesn't mean they are there either.

If you had a bowie knife or something and like a scuba tank, and fell into it's mouth and it stayed near the surface for a few hours, would it be possible to cut your way out, or would you suffocate or be digested first?

Truely one big animal.

i belive theres another topic on this

Do you have any links for the "attack"

Attack?

And no, I don't have any REAL pictures. They showed a reconfiguration vid on a Discovery doc about the Megalodon, though.

Could be...
megs are thought to be deep water sharks, so who knows.

Yes there is already a big Meg thread here in Crypto, and also in Paleontology. And many people would say your atributes of the Meg are greatly exaggerated. Megs filled the nich of the super sea predator when the great sea reptiles died, and went away when the great sea mammals came. Why?, Because big reptilian and big mammalian predators are more intelligent than a big dumb shark.

The idea of cutting yourself out of a predator lika a giant shark with a bowie knife is ridiculous fantasy. Turkeys have been fed razor sharp surgical scalpel blades which didn't bother them at all. Fish swallow fishhooks which also eventually dissolve. Stomachs are not comfortable air filled chambers like you seen in cartoons either. They tightly contract around food, and if a person, would prevent the limbs from even moving, and a strong muscular contraction (which is what stomachs constantly do), could bend a persons backbone backwards and snap it.

If a predator did feel an annoying pinprick in its stomach, it would simply vomit up what it ingested. This is a popular defense mechanism of several types of fishes, which have evolved spines for this specific purpose if they are swallowed.

Thanks DC, I was thinking along the lines of being constricted but wasn't sure... there is gas in my stomach. I'd imagine it might take a little bit for a cocroach to die if I were to swallow one whole.

A swallowed sharp object isn't quite like a sharp object being Used instead of just sitting there... although I do understand what you're saying about the toughness and elasticity.

I'm just thinking best case scenario too... more than likely would probably get chomped or knocked and bleed to death before, or who carries a bowie knife out there... it's a crazy hypothetical... But your mention of spikey fish makes me still wonder...

A linkie you may find interesting.

http://www.strangemag.com/megalodon.html

Are you sure you its "Carcharocles"? Coulda sworn it was spelled differently.

The largest I've ever heard them described as is around 60 feet.

Not exaggerated, or do you want to say the biologist who came on the doc to be wrong about everything I wrote in this post?




Seen that already.



Carcharodon, perhaps?



By the measurements of the whole mouth, biologist came to these numbers.

Wow. Maybe it is just hidden deep.

180 feet?
That's even more exaggerated than steve alten's lengths in his books. The most likely they grew to is around 40, pushing 60 feet!
And Carcharocles is another genus for megalodon as paleontologists have yet to agree on carcharodon or carcharocles, carcharodon is it's name if you believe it is closley related to them modern day GW while carcharocles implies it involved from the Cretolamna.
I have never seen an estimate of the megalodons speed so i cannot debate with the one you have given but i know GWs can reach speeds over 50k/h at short bursts, and the second picture you have attatched is very old with primitive estimates of them megalodons jaw size, the more accurate one is the one with the scientists sitting inside, i think its about 6 feet tall.

ah...about the topic i heard that some fishermen around davao in the philippines reported about a huge shadow in the water,they were near the trench that day so maybe it still lives in the depts of the trench

more facts at this link

To say that we know the extent of it's length is a little guessy at best in my opinion. We only have a few samples of its jaws from the fossil record. That would be like saying that humans are between 5 foot and 6foot six inches tall. (Roughly two meters). Sure, that's right for the most of us but, what about the N.B.A.? Shaqeil O'Neil is nearly eight feet tall. There was one guy who was nearly ten feet tall in the 1950's.

I guess that it's safe to say that most of these fish are roughly so-and so size but, there are always exceptions. I don't believe that a large number of the population was over 60 feet but, one or two "freaks" could easily be.

Well, I would agree that if the Megaladon was indeed related to the great white, then the average length would rest soemwhere around 50 or 60 feet.
However, if it was truely a member of the Carcharocles family, it would more resemble a Mako: http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/Desc...Marlin/mako.JPG
If this relationship is true than it's possible that yes, it may have grown to a length of 80 to 90 feet as the ratio of tooth-size to overall body-leagth is much wider. Still, and estimate of 180 feet is, forgive me for saying so, gross exaggeration.

I am skeptical of these things still being alive without having been spotted by now, unless they are like the giant squid and generally stay only in the deep ocean. The thing is practically as big as a Sperm Whale.

cool, do you have a link on this, is just new or something?

Well, the giant squid wasn't believed in untill quite recently (any date anyone?) and howabout megamouth? That one was discovered 1976, and as fr as I know it's only been seen twice... and then of course we got coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae which was thought to be dead the last 35 million years or so...

Conclusion: there is a possibility that the megalodon still lives, but I remain sceptical...

it is really scary...if that creature still out there...