NOTE: THE REPORT OF A CAPTURED MEGALODON IS A HOAX (see the reader’s comment #7, which reveals the site as a fake one. That’s what I get for not checking further. I’d ditch the post, but I’ll leave it up because you can still read about Megalodon, a truly awesome creature. My apologies.
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I don’t think this is real at all, but on the chance it might be, and the recurrent reports that the ancient shark Megalodon (taxonomic status uncertain) is still alive, here’s a report from the World News Daily, with pictures, saying that one was caught off the coast of Pakistan. The report says that it was 15 tons of beast, by far the largest shark ever caught, and twice the size of a big Great White shark. The report:
The giant creature first thought to be a great white shark was rapidly declared by experts to be an unknown species of shark as it’s great weight and size were unheard of. Analysis of the teeth suggest the shark to be a parent of the Megalodon, an extinct species of shark that lived approximately 28 to 1.5 million years ago, during the Cenozoic Era.
The sea creature that measures an incredible 10.4 meters and weighs an astounding 15.6 tons is the largest living shark ever caught to date, great white sharks reaching an impressive 7 tons at full growth, a size that is no match for this giant prehistoric shark that can reach an imposing 20 meters in length and possibly weight up to 30 tons, depending on estimates.
The specimen was revealed not to be fully grown and is estimated to be 2 or 3 years old and already twice the size of a full grown white shark, which takes 5 years to reach its full growth.
The photos in the article, with their captions:
Here’s a tooth, but it’s not even clear from the article whether this was taken from the shark’s jaw or is fossilized. The caption (and appearance) suggest the former, and if it’s real this is certainly not a shark we know:
Megalodon was thought to have gone extinct around 1.5 million years ago, so it is possible that a few are still lurking in the depths. After all, the coelocanth was captured alive in 1938 after we thought it had been extinct for over sixty million years. It would be nice to think it’s still there.
Megalodon was huge and fearsome. Here’s what Wikipedia says about its size
In the 1990s, marine biologists such as Patrick J. Schembri and Staphon Papson opined that C. megalodon may have approached a maximum of around 24 to 25 metres (79 to 82 ft) in total length, however Gottfried and colleagues proposed that C. megalodon could likely approach a maximum of only 20.3 metres (67 ft) in total length. Currently, most experts acknowledge that C.megalodon reached a total length of more than 16 metres (52 ft).
And a comparison to other creatures. Megalodon (with one of its disputed names) is gray and red, the great white, puny by comparison, is green, and the whale shark, a filter-feeding, non-dangerous shark that is the largest living nonmammalian creature, is in violet.
Fossil Megalodon are know mainly from their teeth and vertebrae; reconstructions, such as the jaw below, are extrapolations from these. But the teeth (below, with two teeth from Great White sharks) are undeniably indicative of a monster shark. I believe the scale is in centimeters, so the tooth is about 13.5 cm long, or about 5 inches long, matching the tooth above.
This is a famous (and of course speculative) reconstruction of a Megalodon jaw, produced
So do you think this report is true? Did they catch a living fossil? I’m betting no, but weigh in below.
h/t: Stephen Barnard
None of the names of the scientists shows up on Google outside the article itself. This smells like nonsense.
It’s the Whirled Nut Daily. I’d wait until the announcement appears in something that isn’t a tabloid.
At first glance, the guy in the orange appears to be in the foreground, which would make the shark huge. However, he is actually behind the support tripod, and there is another person to the left rear of the shark, which makes the shark more of a normal size for a great white. Plus the size of the links in the chain hoist; nope, it’s a normal shark.
Yes, I noticed that. It’s all designed to make the shark look bigger than it is.
If it’s real, I will never swim in the ocean again.
Definitely nonsense, here’s a handy quick check, with this website listed at the bottom: http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/Fake-News/tp/A-Guide-to-Fake-News-Websites.01.htm
After Discovery Channel’s disgraceful Megalodon hoax documentary last year my bet is that this is someone else trying to get in on the same act
I quote from the publication:
“Disclaimer
World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.”
More news from that source:
“Woman Loses 180 Pounds In 30 Days After Miracle Microwave Diet”
“Japanese Whaling Crew Eaten Alive By Killer Whales, 16 dead”
Well, that settles it. Are my ears red! I’ll leave it up with a disclaimer and as a learning experience about Megalodon.
Maybe this is cosmic payback for avoiding the drivel that is cable tv. The once reliable Discovery Channel pulled this hoax about a year ago with an hour long realistic special stating the megladon still existed. An excessively large number of people were fooled.
The difference is the Discovery Channel did it on purpose and never admitted that lying intentionally might be wrong.
I hate it when that happens… 😉
(I think the last time I passed you a link w/o checking it & you corrected me [about a month ago?], that it was a World News Daily article.)
Another article currently on the same website:
I’m going to get all my evolution news from there from now on!
I heard that Darwin’s gay lover was in fact a woman. However she made exceptions for hairy Victorians with close simian family connections!
7 ton white sharks!?!??
Note: This report is a hoax and I was taken in. My apologies. See comment #7 above.
If you were a cat you’d need to lick a paw🐯
Makesa good story, in any case…
I got my son a fossil C. megalodon tooth a few years back. It measures about 4 inches (10cm) (in the same length method shown in the photo of the 15 cm tooth). It is imperfect (though 95+% complete) and so wasn’t super-expensive. Really affordable actually.
He was so thrilled to get that tooth! And what a way to “touch history” and ancient animals. He took it to school as soon as we would allow it.
I can recommend this site for fossil shark teeth.
I got busted by posting an Onion article (that had been forwarded to me by email) as if it were real. I was embarrassed.
I was a hoax article depicting the had of the RNC as an anti-science know-nothing. Something that was entirely believable in the run-up to the 2012 (US national) elections. With “Legitimate rape” and all the other crap they really were saying. Nevertheless, I publicly acknowledged my embarrassment on that one.
It’s (surprisingly) easy to miss things like that (during a very busy day).
It was a hoax article depicting the head … (really must proof my comments!)
That’s the problem with the Onion: the stuff they’re trying to parody is often already so crazy that it’s frequently not easy to tell that it isn’t serious.
Same with Borowitz Report.
Comparing the cases of the coelacanth and C. Megalodon, it would seem much harder to miss a megalodon in the wild. It would require a lot of food; and IIRC, the thought is that they fed on the great whales and co-evolved with them.
Going extinct just 1.5 mya makes one wonder: Why? (After having passed through many ice-ages, etc. and the whales were still around …)
Yeah but something that big would eat most of the evidence. 🙂
It’s a shame (for ecological diversity) that it was a hoax.
Maybe orcas began out-competing them or possibly even preying on them around that time?
That seems to be a leading hypothesis.
World News Daily is a wingnut “news” site of which World News Daily Report is the parody, though that’s hardly necessary, since WND parodies itself. If World News Daily had reported on this, they would have claimed to have found President Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate in the shark’s stomach.
The first picture of the tooth is a fossil, although it is a beauty.
I just wish that shark fishing was more regulated. Poor things.
I think the first photo of the hoisted shark might be from the British show “Inside Nature’s Giants.” That episode featured the autopsy of a biggish Great White – but not 60-foot big. 😉
The last picture (the man sitting in the jaws of Megalodon was probably the first picture I ever saw about prehistoric life.
For one reason or another I remember him smoking a pipe.
Sub
Haven’t had this much fun since the editor quit publishing the “weekly world news” with the infamous Batboy and Hlllary Clinton’s alien lover . . . sure do miss that.
There’s an even funnier one going around about Bill Clinton and his lover, I think she was described as an intern, whatever that is. I don’t know if you’ve seen that one. Really unbelievable
I wish it weren’t a hoax…that would have been an amazing find. Oh well…at least I learned a bit about C. megalodon.
Heres the link to the original photo – Its a great white shark (and weighed only around 700kg) found off South Africa, and the photo is actually almost 5 years old.. You’re welcome! http://www.news.com.au/world/monster-great-white-shark-caught-in-south-africa-not-yet-fully-grown/story-e6frfkyi-1225792904916
The web site where this was taken, The World News Today, does not print the comment I wrote. The contact us function also does’t work.
Actually I enjoyed the story. Look at those black and white teeth! Yahoo! :)))
Another disappointment, but I’m not surprised, I thought it was too good to be true. The photos looked a bit dubious too.
http://www.news.com.au/world/monster-great-white-shark-caught-in-south-africa-not-yet-fully-grown/story-e6frfkyi-1225792904916
same photo used 5 years ago.