Megalodon: Does it Still Roam the Oceans?

In the depths and darkness of the wild oceans it lurks. Cold and merciless, it kills everything in its path, devouring whales like toddlers devour cupcakes, with a bite force 6 times stronger than a T-Rex. It’s the terror skulking behind the waves, the boogey shark that’ll steal away little dolphins and whales not listening to their parents and eating their veggies. It’s the monster roaming the seas, haunting our dreams: it’s the Megalodon shark.

Not so fast. While a good monster story has its appeal, before we grab our spear guns and hop on our speed boats, we need to ask: is the Megalodon even real? Unlike many other cryptids, the Megalodon was very real. This monster existed. The mystery we need to examine is whether this shark is still around, ending lives and hunting things.

Meet Meg

Most people might be familiar with the 2018 movie The Meg, based on a book by Steve Alten, about a Megalodon shark terrorizing people, because apparently that’s what sharks do. Like all monster movies, it did a wonderful job of completely misrepresenting the Megalodon, and sharks in general. So let’s start with meeting the actual Megalodon.

Sharks are pretty amazing. They appeared in the fossil record around 420 million years ago and have been with us ever since. The Megalodon, literally meaning ‘giant tooth’ shark, was the largest and most fearsome shark that ever roamed the oceans. It lived around 23 to 2.6 million years ago and could be found off every continent except Antarctica, because there are some places even Megalodon wouldn’t go.

Truthfully, the Whale shark, at 39 feet (12m), might actually be the largest shark, but since when do we let fact get in the way of a good story.

Sharks don’t have bones; their skeleton is mostly cartilage which doesn’t fossilize, so the only thing researchers really have to work with is the teeth. Using the found teeth and the odd vertebrae, researchers used modern sharks as a comparison to draw up the Megalodon spec sheet. Imagine reconstructing a giraffe using teeth and other antelope existing in the same region for comparison.

Odds are you’re not going to get a very accurate picture. The idea we have of Megalodon today is based heavily on the Great White shark. Both Megalodon and Great White were apex predators, holding the same place in the food chain, and for a long time, scientists considered the two sharks closely related.

However, new research suggests that Megalodon and Great White actually co-existed, so scientists now believe that they were two different species of shark and not actually related at all. Megalodon was the last of the mega-tooth sharks, with no living descendants, so we’ll probably never know what Megalodon really looked like. Everything we know about Megalodon, other than it had really big teeth—the biggest found to date measured 7 inches (18 cm)—is an educated guess.

Megalodon was big. We’re talking about a 33 to 60 foot shark. That’s 10–18m for those outside the US. Some scientists feel that the average Megalodon was probably only about 33 feet (10 m) with bigger sharks being the exception rather than the rule, while others feel the average size was probably closer to 50 feet (15m).

Your average Great White, for comparison, only reaches between 11 and 16 feet (3.3m–4.8m). It was also quite fast considering its size. Tooth marks, and teeth, found in fossilized whale bones tell us this shark was an apex predator and probably aggressive. At 50 tons, it had to be in order to hunt enough food to stay alive.

The Megalodon’s jaw could span between 8 and 11 feet (2.7 to 3.4 m) wide; that’s big enough to easily swallow two adults side by side.

Thankfully, Megalodon’s menu didn’t include humans, mostly because we weren’t around yet. The sharks preferred whales, seals, sea cows, dolphins, other sharks, and turtles among other things. Most predatory sharks won’t stick their noses up at scavenging so while Megalodon was a hunter, not a scavenger, if the opportunity presented itself, Meg probably made good use of it.

Predatory sharks can also be cannibalistic, so it’s quite possible that older sharks occasionally snacked on juveniles and the strong pups munched down on their weaker siblings. Being an apex predator itself, it’s also unlikely that Megalodon had any natural predators.

The Extinction of Megalodon

We’re not sure what caused the Megalodon’s extinction or the exact date the last Megalodon left this world for the shark afterlife, but most researchers concur that it was towards the end of the Pliocene when the planet faced a period of global cooling. The continents of North and South America collided, cutting off the Central American seaway and, with it, the increased flow of warm equatorial waters that was possible while the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans were connected. For the Megalodon that was adapted to temperate tropical and sub-tropical waters, this was very bad news. The cooling oceans led to a major loss of habitat for the shark and dropping sea-levels meant Megalodon nurseries on the coasts were lost, exposing vulnerable pups to other hungry predators.

The global currents also changed and the temperature of the oceans dropped dramatically which had a major impact on ocean life in general. Researchers believe that up to a third of the ocean mammals went extinct along with 43% of turtles and 35% of sea birds. In the time of Megalodon, there were an estimated 20 different genera of whales whereas today, we only have 6. It’s possible that much of the prey Megalodon relied on to support its immense size either went extinct or migrated to colder waters where Meg couldn’t follow.

When environmental causes disrupt the ecosystem, it’s the apex predators that feel the impact first. With their prey going extinct, Megalodon would soon follow.

On top of dwindling food sources, it’s speculated the Megalodon also had to compete with other existing predators, like the Leviathan Whale, and new emerging predators, like the Great White shark, aggressive sperm whales that are now extinct, and the Orca, or killer whale, for what was left. Killer whales are highly intelligent and social hunters hunting in groups or pods. A juvenile Megalodon would’ve been no match for a pod of hungry killer whales. The killer sperm whale was warm-blooded and could follow the prey wherever it went.

It also hunted in groups whereas Megalodon was most likely a solitary hunter. With the Great White and Orca being smaller and needing less food than Meg, their chances of surviving a food shortage were considerably better. In the end, Megalodon’s huge size and dietary needs was its biggest disadvantage.

Megalodon might’ve been able to fight off extinction had it been faced with only one obstacle, but the combination of a cooling ocean, fierce competition with the competition occasionally munching on Megalodon pups, Megalodon pups chomping down on each other, and prey going extinct and migrating into colder waters finally led the last Meg to meet the shark gods, ending the line of mega-tooth sharks.

Or, is that simply what they want you to believe?

Megalodon Still Exists!

Over the last century, sightings of gigantic sharks have been reported all over the world. Since we have no idea what Meg actually looked like, many cryptozoologists and megalodon-groupies firmly believe that these sightings are proof that the mighty Megalodon is not as extinct as scientists would have us believe. Many of these sightings, like the video of the Megalodon in the Mariana Trench, have been debunked, so let’s look at a few sightings that aren’t as easily explained.

The David Stead Sighting

In 1918, Australian naturalist David Stead recorded the tale of a group of local fishermen at Port Stephens, Australia. For several days, the fishermen refused to return to their fishing grounds of Broughton Island. What they had encountered out there frightened them so much that they were willing to give up their only source of income to stay out of its way. Stead and Mr. Paton, the local Fisheries Inspector, interviewed the men and heard the following tale:

While fishing for crayfish off Broughton Island, in deep waters, the fishermen encountered an enormous shark. The shark went from crayfish pot to crayfish pot, filled with catch, and chomped it down, mooring lines and all. The pots were about 3 feet, 6 inches in diameter (around 1m) and contained around two to three dozen decently sized crayfish weighing several pounds each. These were experienced fishermen, well acquainted with the seas and its inhabitants, and they all agreed that they had never seen anything like it.

They were also firm that it wasn’t a whale, it was a shark. Size estimates differed from one story-teller to the next, ranging between 115 feet (35m) to 300 feet (90m) long which seemed a little absurd, even to Stead. The men claimed that the water seemed to boil whenever the shark swam past or surfaced, and the shark had a ghostly white color.

So, did our fishermen have an encounter with the suddenly-not-so-extinct Megalodon? Both Stead and Paton agreed that the men saw something. While Stead didn’t think the shark was nearly as large as the fishermen claimed, he considered the possibility of it being a Megalodon. Since he held a PhD in Biology, and the shark spotted was never identified, Megalodon believers cite this as proof that Meg is still around, or at least it was in 1918.

Zane Grey’s Tale

Zane Grey was a well-known novelist of westerns and a deep-sea angler who had a Megalodon tale of his own. In his book, Tales of Tahitian Waters, published in 1931, Grey describes his encounter with a gigantic shark in 1927 or 1928 while sailing off the coast of the French Polynesian island of Rangiroa. Grey was an experienced angler, but claimed that he wasn’t able to identify the large shark, much longer than his 30-40 foot (9-12m) fishing boat. He described the shark as yellow and green with a square head, immense pectoral fins, and white spots. What was the monster? According to Grey, he encountered the mighty Megalodon.

Grey’s son, Loren, also claimed to have seen a gigantic shark around 100 miles northwest of Rangiroa while aboard the S.S. Manganui with his father. When exactly this happened is a bit unclear. Some sources claim Loren saw his shark two days after his father saw a shark while other sources state that Loren saw the shark in 1933. Either way, he estimated his shark to be 40 to 59 feet (12-18m) long, yellowish with white flecks, with a massive head, some 10 to 12 feet (around 3m) across, and a large brown tail. If that sounds like a Whale shark to you, you’re not the only one. Loren Grey insisted that the monster he saw wasn’t a Whale shark, but experts disagree. Experts also consider Zane Grey’s sighting to be a Whale shark or an exceptionally large Tiger Shark.

A Shark Eat Shark World

A research team in Australia tagging Great White sharks came across one of their trackers washed up on the beach around 4 months after tagging a shark. When they looked at the data, they made a surprising discovery. The recorded data showed a sudden rise in temperature, and then a drop to 1900 feet (580m). Great Whites can dive that deep, but it’s not their usual stomping grounds.

The only reasonable explanation the researchers could come up with was that their tagged shark had been eaten by something and the tracking device had been in the digestive tract of whatever ate the Great White. Of course, the immediate conclusion of all the megalodon-groupies was that this was irrefutable proof that a Megalodon ate a Great White.

In another incident, Jalil Najafov spotted a 15 foot (4.5m) scarred Great White while diving off Isla Guadalupe in Mexico. The bite mark on the shark’s side was enormous. Of course, the only thing big enough to bite or eat a Great White is Megalodon, right?

Not quite. According to scientists, it’s not uncommon for Great Whites to bite or even eat each other. Alternatively, Orcas are known predators of Great Whites. In 2022, drone footage taken off the coast of Mossel Bay, South Africa, caught a pod of killer whales hunting and killing a Great White shark. Of course, social media is full of experts who all agree that these incidents were the work of Megalodon since there’s no definitive proof that another Great White was involved.

The Black Demon of Cortez

This shark is a cryptid that actually deserves its own examination. Apparently, a massive black shark has been seen off Mexico’s Baja coast for years. Eric Mack, a fisherman, reported that he had a run in with the Black Demon when the Demon rocked his boat, its tail sticking at least five feet out of the water. There are other explanations for this shark other than Megalodon—it could be a Whale shark or a Great White shark with melanism—but many believers stand firm: The Black Demon of Cortez is none other than the mighty Megalodon.

There are plenty more sightings. In the 1960s, the captain of a 55 foot (16m) fishing boat reported seeing a shark at least as long as his boat while at anchor for repairs off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. In 2012, the Brazilian Coast Guard caught footage of a really huge shark passing underneath them while on a rescue operation. Understandably, everyone was a bit preoccupied at the time; they were busy saving lives after all, so they only saw the shark when reviewing the footage later.

The Not So Extinct Fish

The idea of a once extinct animal suddenly being found is not without precedent; it’s happened before. Every time a cryptid is mentioned, the rediscovery of this fish is presented as proof that extinct animals could still exist—they’re just hiding. So let’s deal with the Coelacanth in the room.

According to the fossil record, the Coelacanth went extinct around 65 million years ago. Imagine everyone’s surprise when a living Coelacanth was caught off the coast of South Africa on December 23, 1938 by local fishermen. The supposedly extinct fish was spotted by a museum curator, Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, who sent drawings of the fish to Rhodes University ichthyologist J.L.B. Smith who made the positive identification.

Another specimen was caught in 1952 off the Comoros Islands. Local fishermen were probably aware of the Coelacanth’s existence long before a biologist showed up to declare the fish no longer extinct; however, not being experts in the field of extinct fish, they just didn’t realize the significance of their lunch.

A fully grown Coelacanth can reach up to 6.6 feet (2m), so it’s not a small fish. However, their habitat is limited to a very specific location—mostly around the Comoros Islands with a few specimens spotted along the east coast of Africa and off Indonesia. On top of that, they spend their days hiding out in caves, only coming out to feed at night, so they’re easy to miss. While they’re generally slow moving fish, they can move quickly should the need arise.

So, the argument goes, if the Coelacanth could hide in the oceans for millions of years, why not the Megalodon? The oceans are vast and we’ve only explored a very small part of it after all. This is true; however, the Coelacanth is a 2m long fish hiding in caves. The Megalodon is a 15m aggressive predator not hiding in caves.

The Discovery of New Species

We’ve only explored a very small part of our oceans. The sea floor has been mapped using satellite and sonar, but that doesn’t tell us much about the denizens of the deep ocean which means that, occasionally, we discover new species.

The Megamouth shark was only discovered in 1976 by a US Navy ship off Hawaii. At 15 feet (4.5m), it’s a pretty big shark. However, Megamouth evaded notice for many years because it lives in very deep waters, feeding off plankton, and only comes to the surface at night. Since it doesn’t hunt, there won’t be carcasses washing up on beaches with bite marks out of them to act as proof of Megamouth’s existence.

Instead, it lives away from the coastline so the chances of people running into a Megamouth shark are slim. Megalodon pups lived near the coastline, and the remains of Megalodon meals probably washed up on beaches. Unlike Megamouth, there would be proof of Meg.

And let’s not forget the squids. The giant squid can reach up to 30 feet (9m) in length and lives in the deepest parts of the ocean. While bodies of the squid have been washing up on beaches and squid have been leaving scars on whales for many, many years, the first living giant squid was only caught on film in 2004.

The colossal squid, because giant was already taken, is even bigger than the giant squid and was only discovered in 1925. Despite knowing about this considerable portion of calamari for decades, we still don’t know much about the actual creature today.

While the squid aren’t exactly abundant and they were only accepted scientifically in the 1900s, there was still ample proof of their existence. Sightings of these beasts probably gave rise to the many stories of the Kraken reported by sailors. Giant squid tentacles were found washed up on beaches, their beaks were found in the stomachs of the predators that fed on them, and there are records of squid beaching in places like Newfoundland and New Zealand since the 19th century. However, there is a big difference between squid and Megalodon.

Squid are not apex predators. They’re ambush predators with a very low metabolism, so they don’t need that much food to survive—unlike Megalodon which was an apex predator and needed lots of food.

Did Megalodon Evolve to Live in the Mariana Trench?

A video of a supposed Megalodon in the Mariana Trench went viral in 2016. The footage shows a gigantic shark, at least 50 feet (15m) long, swimming over an abandoned shark cage. However, this was proven to be a hoax. The footage is not from the Mariana Trench.

The video that went viral in 2016 was in fact filmed in 2008 in Suruga Bay, off the coast of Japan. The supposed diving cage isn’t a diving cage and the Megalodon is not a 50 foot monster but a Pacific sleeper shark. However, the video did raise an interesting question: is it possible that Megalodon evolved to survive in the deepest parts of the ocean?

The Mariana Trench is a canyon in the earth’s crust running for around 1,500 miles (2,400km) but is only about 40 miles (64km) across, in the Western Pacific, and is the deepest part of the ocean. Challenger Deep, the deepest spot in the trench, is over 35,000 feet (10,600m) deep. That’s around 6,000 feet deeper than Mount Everest is tall. The temperature in the trench is around 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 Fahrenheit) and the pressure is 1,000 times more than what it is at sea level.

Humans have only managed to travel to the bottom of Challenger Deep twice and the landscape is inhospitable to say the least.

In order for Megalodon to adapt to life in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean, it would’ve had to undergo quite the transformation. To date, no sharks have been discovered living in the Mariana Trench. The Greenland shark dives as deep as 7,200 feet (2,200m) and the Pacific Sleeper shark can dive up to 6,600 feet (2,000m). However, no sharks live below the 10,000 foot (3,000m) mark—the pressure will crush them.

However, let’s say Megalodon managed to evolve piezolytes; essentially, a molecule deep water dwelling creatures have that prevents the rest of their molecules from being crushed by the pressure, it would still need food. Most of the creatures living in the trench are small, adapted to survive on limited food sources, and there just aren’t that many of them. The deeper you go, the less populated it is.

Deep sea sharks also tend to be very slow and sluggish, so unlikely to hunt the amount of food Megalodon would need. Creatures living in the deep oceans are often scavengers, eating the decaying remains of the animals and plants that sink to the bottom—this is not the diet of an apex predator. A shark that used to eat whales is unlikely to survive off a diet of sea cucumbers.

Finally, if Megalodon adapted and has been playing the longest game of hide-and-seek in history, there would still be proof in the fossil record. A predator like Megalodon wouldn’t simply pack its toothbrushes and other shark accessories and move on down to the deeps—it would have to evolve. Some adaptations might include an expandable stomach to store food for longer periods of time, piezolytes to prevent being crushed, and bioluminescence or really big eyes to see down there, among other things. This means transitional fossils showing this evolution.

However, none have been found. On top of that, unless Megalodon did evolve to eat plankton or small fish, it would hunt which means signs of predation. We’d be finding whale carcasses with really big holes in them and whale bones with really big teeth stuck in them.

While this theory is highly unlikely, it does raise another point. If Megalodon managed to evolve into a very deep sea shark eating cucumbers with krill dressing, dreaming of the days its predecessors were hunting big juicy whales, would it still be a Megalodon shark? Perhaps there is an unknown shark cruising around the Mariana Trench waiting to be discovered, but it’s pretty sure it’s not our friend Meg.

How We Know Megalodon Isn’t Around Anymore

Honestly, anyone who’s been paying attention so far should be able to answer this one, but there are some die-hard believers out there.

Where Are the Teeth?

From the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, Megalodon teeth, thought to be petrified snake tongues and known as St. Paul’s tongue, were used as charms to ward off evil, dipped in drinks suspected of being poisoned, and used as medicine, and our fascination with these large teeth is still going strong. There’s a very lucrative trade among shark teeth collectors looking for that elusive perfect Megalodon tooth.

Sharks lose teeth constantly—some estimates range between 20,000 to 40,000 teeth in a lifetime. If Megalodon was still around, we’d be finding fresh teeth yet every single Megalodon tooth found is over 2 million years old. And Megalodon teeth are distinctive—they don’t look like Great White teeth—and they are big. Someone looking for shark teeth is not going to miss a Megalodon tooth.

In 1873, the HMS Challenger, a research vessel, dredged up two Megalodon teeth from a depth of 14,000 feet (4,200m) near Tahiti in the South Pacific. In 1959, Dr. W.

Tschernezky of London’s Queen Mary College dated the teeth by studying the build-up of the manganese dioxide layer on each tooth. Based on the dioxide deposition, Tschernezky concluded that the teeth were 11,000 and 24,000 years old, respectively. This would suggest that Megalodon only went extinct far more recently than science assumes.

Many a megalodon-believer use this story as proof of Megalodon’s existence. However, manganese dioxide dating, especially on shark teeth, is today considered unreliable as shark teeth can withstand more erosion due to being far more durable than your typical fossil. A study in 1998 showed that the mineral crust of manganese dioxide preserved the teeth and reduced the decomposition rate which is why the teeth appeared whiter and ‘fresher’ than most Megalodon teeth.

As for why the teeth were found in sediment dating to around 10,000 years ago when Megalodon was well and truly gone, it’s an example of reworking: the teeth eroded out of the original rock and were preserved in newer rock.

A Limited Menu

Megalodon also wouldn’t need to be living in the deepest parts of the ocean to struggle with finding food. The lack of prey was one of the reasons Megalodon went extinct in the first place. The decline in whale diversity due to global climate change meant less food, and that hasn’t changed.

Even if Meg adapted to a diet that includes more dolphins and seals, they’d still be eating whales, and if dead things with big holes in them started showing up, we’d know about it. Apex predators also control animal populations so, if Megalodon was still hunting in the oceans, our ecosystem would look very different. Without Megalodon munching away on them, among other evolutionary factors, whales have gotten much larger in body size than their predecessors; however, there are far fewer of them than there were in Megalodon’s day.

Lastly, the spot of top predator that once belonged to Megalodon today belongs to the Great White and the Orca. There simply isn’t room at the top of the food chain, or enough food in the oceans, for poor old Meg anymore.

Why Haven’t We Seen It?

This might be the biggest argument against the continued existence of Meg. Megalodon wasn’t rare or elusive; it was everywhere. If it was still alive, we would’ve seen it by now. Juvenile Megalodon lived in coastal nurseries close to shore.

Some of these nurseries have been discovered off the coast of Panama, Maryland, Florida, and the Canary Islands. Staying in the shallower waters closer to shore provided the Megalodon pup with abundant food supplies while protecting it from larger predators hunting in the deeper waters. It’s theorized that the pups were at least 2m at birth already. Oddly, shallow coastal regions are also quite popular with people.

If Megalodon was still using nurseries, it’s unlikely that shark researchers would’ve found Megamouth but not Megalodon Jr.

On top of that, human beings are keeping a close eye on whales and sharks. Whale watching tours, shark diving, and killing sharks are all very lucrative business opportunities. If there was a big shark snacking on whales, someone on a whale-watching tour would be scarred for life by now, and engineers would have to come up with much stronger shark diving cages. Shark meat is considered a delicacy and a pound of Mako shark goes for around $30 these days.

A fully grown Megalodon would rake in millions. Sadly, over 100 million sharks are being killed every year—for trophy hunting, for shark fin soup, in reaction to shark attacks and due to sharks getting caught in trawler nets. The odds of a shark the size of Megalodon escaping the senseless slaughter seem highly unlikely.

And then there’s that one pesky little detail that always trips up cryptozoologists. You can’t have just one Megalodon. If Megalodon has been hiding in the oceans for the last 2.6 million years, you’ll need more than one. A single shark cannot be millions of years old.

You will need big Megalodon sharks to make little Megalodon sharks to ensure a sustainable population. If they were going extinct, that population would be smaller, but the primary way big marine animals go extinct these days is through hunting and Megalodon has not been showing up in anyone’s nets.

It’s a Conspiracy!

There are people who believe that scientists know Megalodon is still alive but for some reason the government is covering up the existence of the mighty Meg. While the government has a whole lot of things to hide, it’s not clear how hiding the existence of the Megalodon shark benefits the government. The existence of the shark has no political or financial implications.

As for science—any scientist that can prove the existence of Megalodon without a doubt would be considered a superstar in the world of science. The biologist who rediscovered the Coelacanth didn’t keep it to themselves nor were they ridiculed in the scientific community since they could prove without a doubt that the Coelacanth had been found. Rediscovering the Megalodon would mean fame and possibly fortune so no one would cover up a find like that.

Why Do People Believe Megalodon Is Real?

For some reason, humanity isn’t happy to simply live in terror of monsters that exist, so we like to invent some as well. Throughout history, the carcasses of unidentified creatures washing up on beaches fueled stories of sea monsters roaming the deep. Science has come a long way, so we know sea serpents aren’t real. This means that we need a new monster, and that monster is Megalodon.

Fake Documentaries

Probably the biggest culprit in making people believe tales of Megalodon is the Discovery Channel and their fake documentaries. Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives and its sequel Megalodon: The New Evidence drew almost 4.3 million viewers, but it was all fiction. It follows a marine biologist’s investigation following the disappearance of a fishing boat and other sightings and incidents alluding to the existence of a really big shark off the coast of Cape Town. However, the fishing boat never disappeared, it was completely fabricated. The photo of a whale with its tail bitten off found on a beach in Hawaii was CGI, and all the scientists and supposed witnesses were paid actors. The ‘documentary’ doesn’t actually find Megalodon, because it’s not real, but it strongly implies that Megalodon is still very much alive and swimming. There was a very vague disclaimer that it wasn’t a real documentary that most people either missed or misunderstood. The documentary was so bad that even cryptozoologists who believe in the existence of Megalodon were offended by the poor quality and misrepresentation of their field, and science in general, in an attempt to get higher ratings.

The show claims there are only ‘unproven theories’ of Megalodon’s extinction. Definitively proving anything that happened that long ago is simply not possible. We only have unproven theories about what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and the woolly mammoth, but you don’t see them running around do you?

In his search for the truth, the fake marine biologist discovers a photo proving the existence of a Very Big Shark and the photo shows up repeatedly on ‘Megalodon exists!’ sites. The 1942 photo, apparently taken off the coast of Cape Town, shows a Nazi U-boat with what appears to be a really big shark cruising along next to it. You can only see the dorsal fin and the tail in the background. There is nothing to help you determine how close this shark is to the U-boat which immediately makes it impossible to say how large the thing is we’re seeing. It’s the perfect combination for click bait—extinct shark and Nazis in one photo. Aside from the fact that it somehow went unfound for 70 years, there are a number of problems with this photo. Firstly, no U-boats of this particular class were close to South African waters at the time this photo was taken. Secondly, the distance between the fins suggests a shark of around 64 feet in length. That’s larger than what scientists estimate the Megalodon actually was. Another expert mentioned that the photo presented in the show is toned sepia which wasn’t standard at the time. A photo taken of a submarine from another submarine in the middle of the Atlantic, where this photo was taken, would’ve been black and white. George Monbiot, a columnist for The Guardian, uncovered the original footage, before the photo-shop munchkins got their grubby paws on it and, lo and behold, no shark.

Misidentification

Other than intentional fraud, many Megalodon sightings are plain misidentification. Eye-witness accounts can be problematic. The combination of excitement and fear when coming across a really big shark could easily add a few feet turning an average Great White into a mighty Megalodon.

On top of that, it’s difficult to estimate the size of anything out at sea. On land, you have other objects, like trees or buildings, for comparison, but at sea, there’s nothing to use for reference to give you a true idea of how big something is or how far away it is, especially if you’re not an experienced sailor. Photographs can be misleading for the same reason.

Not only will something in the open ocean often appear much larger than it really is, you also have to contend with the distortions caused by moving water. Basking sharks and Whale sharks are already very large to start with and the largest Whale shark on record reached 61 feet (18.8m); these guys are totally harmless, but it’s no surprise they get confused with Megalodon occasionally.

Finally, it’s not easy to identify an animal you’re not familiar with. Decaying Whale and Basking shark carcasses washing up on shore are often mistaken for unidentified deep sea critters. In 1977, a Japanese fishing trawler dredged up an unidentifiable creature from the depths. A picture was duly taken before the carcass was thrown overboard.

Many conspiracy theorists firmly believe that the “Zuiyo-maru carcass” as it became known was evidence of a surviving prehistoric plesiosaur—and where there’s one, there’s got to be more, right? However, the scientific community agrees that it was the decomposing carcass of a Basking shark. The shark’s lower jaw and dorsal fins had already rotted away, so the remainder looked like some long-necked marine reptile.

Conclusion

Fake documentaries and movies depicting sharks as evil monsters that kill anything they see without compassion is a gross misrepresentation of sharks as a whole. There are around 470 different species of shark and only about a dozen are dangerous to humans. Of the 470 species, only three have been responsible for fatal attacks on humans.

These attacks usually occur when the shark mistakes humans for food; most people survive shark attacks since sharks don’t eat humans, they take one bite, probably get the same expression most of us do when mistaking an olive for a grape, spit it out and move on. In fact, sharks mostly avoid humans. There are some reports of lions and tigers purposefully hunting humans upon learning that humans make easy prey; there is not a single report of a shark doing the same.

Only about 70 people are the victims of unprovoked shark attacks every year with only 5 or less of those attacks proving fatal. Humans, on the other hand, are killing millions of sharks each year.

As for Megalodon, it’s a fascinating shark, but it’s gone. It’s not hiding in the Mariana Trench eating hapless scientists, it’s extinct. Mystery decoded. Perhaps one day science can bring it back, but if you’ve watched any of the Jurassic Park movies, you know that’s a bad idea!

Sharks survived the extinction event that killed the dinosaurs, multiple ice ages and other natural disasters, but now they’re losing the battle. Humans seem to be the one disaster that might end up wiping out sharks for good. So, instead of obsessing over a shark that’s long gone, let’s focus on saving the sharks we have now. They’re not evil, they’re not monsters; they’re actually pretty cool, and they could really use your help!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Megalodon?

The Megalodon was the largest and most fearsome shark that ever roamed the oceans. It lived around 23 to 2.6 million years ago and could be found off every continent except Antarctica.

What did Megalodon sharks eat?

Megalodon sharks preferred whales, seals, sea cows, dolphins, other sharks, and turtles among other things. They were apex predators and probably aggressive.

What caused the Megalodon’s extinction?

The Megalodon’s extinction was likely caused by a combination of global cooling, loss of habitat, dwindling food sources, and competition with other predators like the Great White shark and Orca.

What is the size of a Megalodon?

Megalodon sharks were estimated to be between 33 to 60 feet long. Some scientists believe the average size was around 33 feet, while others suggest it was closer to 50 feet.

Are there any reported sightings of Megalodon sharks?

There have been several reported sightings of gigantic sharks over the last century, but many of these have been debunked. Some notable sightings include those by David Stead and Zane Grey.

What evidence is there that Megalodon sharks are still alive?

Some cryptozoologists and Megalodon enthusiasts believe that sightings of large sharks are proof that Megalodon is not extinct. However, many of these sightings have been debunked or misidentified.

What is the significance of the Coelacanth in the debate about Megalodon’s existence?

The rediscovery of the Coelacanth, a fish thought to be extinct, is sometimes used as an argument that Megalodon could still exist. However, the Coelacanth is a much smaller, cave-dwelling fish, unlike the large, aggressive Megalodon.

What are some of the arguments against the continued existence of Megalodon?

Arguments against the continued existence of Megalodon include the lack of recent teeth, the limited food sources, the absence of sightings despite extensive human activity in the oceans, and the fact that no transitional fossils have been found.

Why do people believe in the existence of Megalodon?

People believe in the existence of Megalodon due to historical stories of sea monsters, misidentifications of large sharks, and sensationalized documentaries and movies that portray sharks as monsters.

What is the impact of human activity on shark populations?

Humans are killing millions of sharks each year through trophy hunting, shark fin soup, and accidental catches in trawler nets. This poses a significant threat to shark populations, including those of Great White sharks and Orcas.

Sources

• Original Decoding the Unknown video: Megalodon: Does it Still Roam the Oceans?
• Hero image source by JJ Harrison (https://www.jjharrison.com.au/AustraliaBirds/i-zwv4nHX) / openverse, by-sa.