Does Megalodon Still exist?

[danielost]

It is not close at all. These animals are massive and breed on the coast (this isn't something they can change, this is the only place with constant secure food). There isn't and realistic chance at all.

i sure like how you make all these declaritive statements. but still back evolution.

[Mattshark]

i sure like how you make all these declaritive statements. but still back evolution.

Because evolution happens.

Species that are highly specialised are less adaptable, you would think that by now you would have bothered to learn something, clearly asking to much of you.

[Mattshark]

i think you forget the giant squid, which is what the sperm eats. the mega mouth is also a deep sea fish even tho it is a filter feeder.

But megalodon evolved to specialise on large aquatic mammals, switching to squid would not be a viable, they would not have had time to adapt.

[danielost]

But megalodon evolved to specialise on large aquatic mammals, switching to squid would not be a viable, they would not have had time to adapt.

sorry it wouldnt take them that long to adapt. besides megalodon started out eating lizards since they were supposedly around when the large sea lizards were here. besides there is a large sea mammal that does go that deep.

Edited May 3, 2010 by danielost

[david brent]

well said

[Drago]

Show me a live or recently deceased Megalodon.

I can show you live or recently deceased Coelocanths.

I can show you live or recently deceased giant squid.

I can show you live or recently deceased fish so rare we know more about the giant squid than we do about it, and so strange it would make your head spin.

But the fifty-foot megapredator that would have to be feasting on whales to survive, we've never seen before. Even though for a large portion of our history, we've followed whales - Megalodon's only reasonable food source - around, hunting them so relentlessly we drove them to the very brink of extinction. We hunted, killed, slaughtered them at sea, things that should have attracted a megapredator like Megalodon like ringing the dinner bell.

And yet there is absolutely nothing. Why in the Blue Bloody !@#$ are you people trying to support and maintain the argument that Megalodon HAS TO BE OUT THERE when we have more evidence of Plesiosaurs in Loch Ness than we do of Megalodon's modern-day existence?

Bigfoot I can understand, Nessie I can understand, even the Gee Dee Chupacabra I can understand. But there is literally, absolutely nothing on Megalodon! The only support Megalodon has is one guy writing cheesy sci-fi stories!

[Mattshark]

sorry it wouldnt take them that long to adapt. besides megalodon started out eating lizards since they were supposedly around when the large sea lizards were here. besides there is a large sea mammal that does go that deep.

No they weren't around during the age of the dinosaurs, by the time that megalodon evolved the only marine reptiles left were the turtles the rest had been gone for 40million years. They evolved to eat mammals.

There is one that goes down to 2-3km (which is relatively not that deep for the oceans), however, it alone is not a viable food source for a species, especially for the pupping.

[TheSearcher]

.....

Bigfoot I can understand, Nessie I can understand, even the Gee Dee Chupacabra I can understand. But there is literally, absolutely nothing on Megalodon! The only support Megalodon has is one guy writing cheesy sci-fi stories!

Very very cheesy sci-fi stories, to be honest. I don't even see the entertainment value in them.

[ShadowSot]

Very very cheesy sci-fi stories, to be honest. I don't even see the entertainment value in them.

I enjoyed them, to be honest, until he just started willy nilly giving gills to every marine reptile he could think of.

[psyche101]

I'm not sure many of those who believe in megalodons really could be counted as cryptoz, they strike me more as rabid fans of the man. I've had long chats over at IMDB with both them and mr Alten himself, at times it does really seem like he and his fans think the crap he writes to be real.

I could be wrong about him though, and it could all be a giant, elaborate ruse to lure more gullible fans in.

I was not really referring to those that follow him, but more the opinion he has of those people.

[Believe-In-Magic]

I voted yes

[Nickolas086]

Its such a large creature the biggest thing we do see today are the Blue Whales and giant Squid dead on the shores of beaches or in the deep ocean. I'm sure man would of seen this creature in the ocean looking for food or laying dead on the shore a long time ago. The creature's jaws are as big as my living room wall in my apartment, so I'm gonna vote no.

[J.B.]

Agreed. It's just not likely. We can dream, or have nightmares, lol, but let's try to leave it at that.

[clockworkgirl21]

I certainly hope they're dead. I hate big ocean animals...*shudder*

I'm even afraid of whales.

[Mattshark]

Its such a large creature the biggest thing we do see today are the Blue Whales and giant Squid dead on the shores of beaches or in the deep ocean. I'm sure man would of seen this creature in the ocean looking for food or laying dead on the shore a long time ago. The creature's jaws are as big as my living room wall in my apartment, so I'm gonna vote no.

Giant squid are big, but they don't compare to the most whales in size. They are no way close to the size of blue whales, which is the biggest animal to ever exist.

[Connor.]

Isn't the largest blue whale a female that was 33m long? I'm sure there was a species of long-necked dinosaur that grew to 35m making it the largest animal but that's just going off fossils.

I used to be a great believer in Megalodon but ive come to terms that it just cant exist. Mattshark has pointed out time and time again that they can't survive the pressures of the deep, it's almost a law. But yet again the laws of Physics saw a bee shouldn't be able to fly, but obviously they can, just throwing that out there?

Also yes, deep down there isn't any food and supposedly they gave birth in the shallows, but I don't know if this was some BBC imformation or whatever but if it is true they would have to come to shallow waters to give birth so there we go, not enough food deep down and the pressure, also the fact they are costal creatures they give birth in shallow water so they would be seen.

Edited July 9, 2010 by CryptidConnor

[Rooby Roo]

I voted no. If it existed then someone will have found one, and killed one. Carcasses and teeth would also have baan washed up. We would also have found wounds in potential prey items. They could also not have lived in deep water, as sharks have cartilage skeletons, and the pressure down there is a lot. There wouldn't have been enough food either.

[Clobhair-cean]

Isn't the largest blue whale a female that was 33m long? I'm sure there was a species of long-necked dinosaur that grew to 35m making it the largest animal but that's just going off fossils.

There were, and in fact are longer animals then the Blue Whale. The longest dinosaur to date is Amphicoelias fragillimus, a pretty poorly known sauropod that might have been up to 60 metres long, and certain invertebrates like the ribbon worm and the lion's mane jellyfish can also be longer then 30-33 metres. But, the largest animal means the animal with the biggest body mass, and that's the blue whale with its 190 metric tons. Amphicoelias is supposed to weigh "only" about 120 tons and of course the invertebrates can't even dream of competing in the body mass game.

There's one dinosaur, Bruhathkayosaurus, that's been speculated to have reached the weight of the blue whale, but it's only been described in one very dodgy paper with almost no data of any use and the only remains of it were lost, so it's at the moment as if it never existed.

I used to be a great believer in Megalodon but ive come to terms that it just cant exist. Mattshark has pointed out time and time again that they can't survive the pressures of the deep, it's almost a law. But yet again the laws of Physics saw a bee shouldn't be able to fly, but obviously they can, just throwing that out there?

The laws of physics don't say that a bee should not be able to fly. All that was said by one scientist that a fixed-wing airplane the size and shape of a bee could not fly. But bees are not airplanes and their wings are anything but fixed so this whole thing is kinda pointless.

[Connor.]

Sorry about the bee part, either my physics teacher didn't explain it in much detail or I just dozed off.

Thanks for the info about the dinosaurs, always like to know new things about them.

[Meg_Man]

There were, and in fact are longer animals then the Blue Whale. The longest dinosaur to date is Amphicoelias fragillimus, a pretty poorly known sauropod that might have been up to 60 metres long, and certain invertebrates like the ribbon worm and the lion's mane jellyfish can also be longer then 30-33 metres. But, the largest animal means the animal with the biggest body mass, and that's the blue whale with its 190 metric tons. Amphicoelias is supposed to weigh "only" about 120 tons and of course the invertebrates can't even dream of competing in the body mass game.

There's one dinosaur, Bruhathkayosaurus, that's been speculated to have reached the weight of the blue whale, but it's only been described in one very dodgy paper with almost no data of any use and the only remains of it were lost, so it's at the moment as if it never existed.

Some prehistoric whales likely rivaled blue whale in size. Pliocene epoch specially witnessed the arrival of some true cetacean giants. Notable example is Balaenoptera sibbaldina (Fossils excavated from Zanclian Stage of early Pliocene).

"Van Beneden (1880, 1882) aligned (presumably based on size) this fossil species with the extant blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus, known to Van Beneden as Balaenoptera sibbaldus), emphasizing that relationship with a similar specific name. Van Beneden emphasized that he was naming the fossil taxon sibbaldina presumably referring to the similar large size of the fossil and living blue whale." (Source: The Taxonomic and Evolutionary History of Fossil and Modern Balaenopteroid Mysticetes)

And here is a good read on largest known sauropods. Some evidence of A. fragillimus have been provided.

Edited July 13, 2010 by Meg_Man

[Dejan]

people, if you think that its extinct, you might be wrong, the megalodon can still be alive because over 3 quarters of the earth's oceans have not been explored, think about it, we found millions of organisms already, there can be more millions that we havent discovered ye!

people, if you think that its extinct, you might be wrong, the megalodon can still be alive because over 3 quarters of the earth's oceans have not been explored, think about it, we found millions of organisms already, there can be more millions that we havent discovered ye!

[+HerNibs]

people, if you think that its extinct, you might be wrong, the megalodon can still be alive because over 3 quarters of the earth's oceans have not been explored, think about it, we found millions of organisms already, there can be more millions that we havent discovered ye!

people, if you think that its extinct, you might be wrong, the megalodon can still be alive because over 3 quarters of the earth's oceans have not been explored, think about it, we found millions of organisms already, there can be more millions that we havent discovered ye!

Welcome to UM.

You might want to give the thread a good read. Especially posts by Mattshark.

It will explain a great deal about why it doesn't exist.

Nibs

[OzarkHowler]

I love sharks, they are amazing predators and survivors and ancient ages. But, there is no evidence that would even slightly hint to Megalodon still being alive. As Mattshark has stated many times, the vast deep sea, and its trenches are akin to deserts on land, with sparse numbers of animal life and none of them are large at all. The pressure down there is just to immense. As much as I would love to believe in Meg still swimming around, it is virtually impossible.

[zombeikiller]

Isn't the largest blue whale a female that was 33m long? I'm sure there was a species of long-necked dinosaur that grew to 35m making it the largest animal but that's just going off fossils.

I used to be a great believer in Megalodon but ive come to terms that it just cant exist. Mattshark has pointed out time and time again that they can't survive the pressures of the deep, it's almost a law. But yet again the laws of Physics saw a bee shouldn't be able to fly, but obviously they can, just throwing that out there?

Also yes, deep down there isn't any food and supposedly they gave birth in the shallows, but I don't know if this was some BBC imformation or whatever but if it is true they would have to come to shallow waters to give birth so there we go, not enough food deep down and the pressure, also the fact they are costal creatures they give birth in shallow water so they would be seen.

Truth is. no and yes. there are lots of things not yet found in the se. and as time has shown preistoric fish still exsist. so why not a meg? who knows. one baby per family. also. there are very large things deep in the sea. most glow. others can eat a human whole. and all have razersharp theet. things adapt to the deepths of the ocean. also there is alot of land e have never adventured into either. aso brings me to the kraken. if there was a megalodon. then there must have been a kraken. mayby those storys of giant sea creatures. where not myths or legends. but truth. and they where all killed or ventuered deep into the dark depths of the ocean.

much is yet to be know and yet to be discoverd. who knows. there might be humanoid creaturs in this world we have not discoverd. like the thing in madagascare. which to me is discribed t be a goblin. remember. a kraken is like a octopuse and a squid. they are boneless. a shark that size would not eat small things. so they could have been enemys. they ate each other. and ma killed the last of the krakens and megalodons. maybe?

[J.B.]

Truth is. no and yes. there are lots of things not yet found in the se. and as time has shown preistoric fish still exsist. so why not a meg? who knows. one baby per family. also. there are very large things deep in the sea. most glow. others can eat a human whole. and all have razersharp theet. things adapt to the deepths of the ocean. also there is alot of land e have never adventured into either. aso brings me to the kraken. if there was a megalodon. then there must have been a kraken. mayby those storys of giant sea creatures. where not myths or legends. but truth. and they where all killed or ventuered deep into the dark depths of the ocean.

much is yet to be know and yet to be discoverd. who knows. there might be humanoid creaturs in this world we have not discoverd. like the thing in madagascare. which to me is discribed t be a goblin. remember. a kraken is like a octopuse and a squid. they are boneless. a shark that size would not eat small things. so they could have been enemys. they ate each other. and ma killed the last of the krakens and megalodons. maybe?

If man killed the last of them I'd expect to have seen mythological evidence for it in the form of a story or painting of some grand hero killing a giant shark and a giant squid/octopus.

Science currently says Meg died off 1.5 mya. That doesn't mean they did, but it's the best guess we can make. I would think a Kraken type creature would be bigger than today's Colossal Squid. I haven't looked up fossil squids to see if there's records of a bigger one out there yet.