New evidence for Megalodon

[doomgirl]

New evidence for Megalodon

As GUST reported in an earlier feature, fishermen at Port Stephens in Australia saw a giant shark in 1918 that fits the description of Megalodon, an 80 feet "monster" which evolved during the early Miocene epoch, about twenty million years ago, and lived until about two or three million years ago. Now new evidence indicates that Carcharodon megalodonu may still be alive.

Last time I'm going swimming in the ocean, true or not

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[Mekorig]

Inst Megalodon the name for an extinct marsupial in south america?

[doomgirl]

Everything I've found on the net points to the Megalodon being a shark

[Aslan]

What evidence ? Beyond fishermen's anecdotes I mean, which what the article basically consists of.

Edited January 7, 2004 by Aslan

[DreamRebel]

[Edit] Post removed

[Aslan]

I haven't, actually. I requested you stopped starting threads based on a single fake/joke picture with no supporting information.

You'll find all of your lovely piccies in HERE.

Post all you want.

[+joc]

Apparently from what I can gather, the hype on Megalodon is exactly that...hype!

Designed to draw attention to commercialization of teeth fossils which seem to go for a very high price.

Snippets from: http://www.paleodirect.com/meg1.htm

From the mid-Miocene Period 16 million years ago to the Plio-Pleistocene Period 1.6 million years ago, the ancient seas were terrorized by this beast. It is estimated that megalodon could have easily reached 60 feet in length and weighed over 52 tons. Fossil teeth have been found that exceed 7 inches in length!

Fine grade Megalodon teeth are some of the most promising investment fossils. Their demand continues to grow strongly and the few regions that such quality teeth are found are now either off-limits to public collecting or nearly stripped clean to feed such demand in the market.



LARGE MEGALODON TOOTH - Morgan River, South Carolina, U.S.A.

5.5" in length on the diagonal edge x 4.2" wide

$1725 SH674 INCLUDES DISPLAY BOX Actual Item - One Only

[Seraphina]

Ah, but you see most of the hype and modern theories that they could still be out there come from the fact that a tooth was discovered not too long ago that was only believed to be a few thousand years old....in evolutionary terms, this is little more than a heartbeat, and if they were around that recently, it's not quite leaping to conclusions that they could be still.

I remain slightly sceptical, I must admit...however, I do believe that we've explored so little of the oceans that there are more likely than not millions of different species living in it that we don't know about. We very rarely explore the deeper reaches of the oceans, and not at all the deepest...To dismiss the existance of Megalodon as mere 'hype', when we know almost nothing about what's out there, would be leaping to conclusions

I'd say it's certainly more believable than ghosts or aliens at any rate

[Mutant Snake]

Megalodon is awesome, but it would be cooler to be one than to be eaten by one.

[+joc]

Radio Carbon Dating is such an exact science..........................

.......................not...........................

[Scorpius]

There is a good possibility that this shark may exist, like the giant squid. We've had our share of capturing a few of these in their enormous size and still desire to capture this creature alive or its offsprings.

There's also that one species of fish that scientists believe have been extinct for a long time, but a fisherman had captured a fish that even he could not name.

This fish is mainly found in the bottom floors of the ocean. I'd give a link if i had one. But if you investigate yourself and search it on the internet, i'm sure you'll believe me. This fish is bluish gray in colour and has fins on the bottom sides of his body.

Anyways, to prove my point, scientists thought these species of animals were extinct and now they know it isn't, whose to say that this megalodon shark is extinct.

[Loque]

If its still around it wouldn't be a genetic match to the earlier ones! it would have evolved as does most things!, so it can carry on doing what it does best eating whale pies!

It would have shrank with its prey to about the size of a medium sized whale.

as it goes

First they grow big

then they evolve to be small

then they regrow to be big

.....etc

[Scorpius]

It would have shrank with its prey to about the size of a medium sized whale.

This is not necessarily true, for if it was the total truth, blue whales would have shrunken down to the size of a mere dolphin, trying to eat krill, which is billions of times smaller than it.

Sometimes evolution is not the cause of change in a certain species of animals, it's mutation(s).

[Sandy Band]

Megalodon is awesome, but it would be cooler to be one than to be eaten by one.

Surely that goes for - well - everything, mutant snakes included

And Blue -Scorpion, are you talking about coelacanths. They were thought to be extinct for 65 million years until they started being pulled out of the sea in the 30s

http://geology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031200a.htm

It just proves I suppose, anything is possible. Just as creatures such as the giant squid are beginning to prove themselves not to be a myth (although admittedly not on the scale of the ship-swallowing critters you see in old paintings) , so there must be other beasties out there that we don't know of.

It's just a shame that most of the new finds come about through ever more intensive fishing techniques. I sometimes wonder how many existing fish are being brought to the brink of extinction while we're marvelling at one species being found...

[zygon]

I remain slightly sceptical, I must admit...however, I do believe that we've explored so little of the oceans that there are more likely than not millions of different species living in it that we don't know about. We very rarely explore the deeper reaches of the oceans, and not at all the deepest...To dismiss the existance of Megalodon as mere 'hype', when we know almost nothing about what's out there, would be leaping to conclusions

true, we know very little about the oceans, infact we know more about space than we do about them.

i watched this program called 'the abyss' and they sent a submarine to the bottom of the ocean in some place, i cant remember how deep but they showed some pretty cool stuff. i'll try find some pictures and put them on here.

[zygon]

heres the bbc site with it on, there are a few pics dotted around. enjoy

[Dowdy]

i saw that show 'the abyss' too. they said that we've only EXPLORED 1% of the sea so that means that there are probably thousands of other species that we havn't discovered yet but i giant shark seems over the top. Most of the fish we havn't found are probably exotic type animals since they can live deeper than most other sea creatures - jellyfish, seahorse and any other strange looking invertebrate.

[crosswarrior]

I think that we develope a program for the exploration of the oceans that would be on par with the proposed space program. The ocean is not only alot easier to reach; but could also (if the harvesting of plankton were refined) prove to be a solution to the hunger crisis.

[Novo]

I used to have a megalodon tooth.. I found it in one of those batches of shark teeth in the middle... it was about the size from the back of my wrist to the end of my middle finger.....

[thepsychoticseaotter]

honestly I think Doomie and the others are right. No one knows whats down there adn then we get these guys showing up now:

So I wouldn't discount Megladon...

[Dowdy]

great pic of the squid. I would be suprised if that, and all the other giant squids they've found, are just babies. If that was the case than the megalodon seems believable.

[Byuu94]

heres a pic

[Duofrost]

i went looking on the web for alittle info about the megalodon here what i found out about it hope it helps

http://www.elasmo-research.org/education/e...n_megalodon.htm

[buggyelfmaiden]

true, we know very little about the oceans, infact we know more about space than we do about them.

i watched this program called 'the abyss' and they sent a submarine to the bottom of the ocean in some place, i cant remember how deep but they showed some pretty cool stuff. i'll try find some pictures and put them on here.

I remember that movie... It was about an alien ship...

The water snake bit was awsome though...

[ambyglam]

It would have shrank with its prey to about the size of a medium sized whale.

This is not necessarily true, for if it was the total truth, blue whales would have shrunken down to the size of a mere dolphin, trying to eat krill, which is billions of times smaller than it.

Sometimes evolution is not the cause of change in a certain species of animals, it's mutation(s).

ah however u see that by now the shark would be smaller and probably pure white with no eyes. the whale is a mystery as the planet does not have the oxygen to support such large mammals any more due to the depletion of stromolites.

but since no one has seen the shark for oooooh well ever really, they would have had to be living far below the surface to avoid being seen, further down there is less oxygen so the shark would not be able to sustain its emmense size, and it would have lost all of its pigmentation from no sunlight and would have no nees for eyes either since they are not much use in the pitch black, however the one theory ive been thinking is that once or twicw there could be a genetic throw back in the genes of the ansestors of the original sharks thus throwing back only one or two every now and again!