Does Megalodon Still Exist?

megalodon the giant predatory fish of nightmares was undoubtedly a magnificently terrifying creature this animal had a distribution that stretched all across the prehistoric world and it pretty much preyed on whatever came across Megalodon has also been a target of many claims that suggest it could still be alive today lurking somewhere in our modern oceans and that in fact it never became extinct a lot of the current support for this idea can be attributed to a 2013 documentary aired by discovery for that year's Shark Week which was a complete fake yet mostly presented itself as fact apart from some brief disclaimers and subsequently managed to spread a great deal of misinformation whether inspired by this or not there seems to be a lot of people on the internet that remain convinced that this awesome prehistoric shark could still exist in modern times and so here I'll be reviewing the arguments that have been made in favor of Megalodon zli survival and we'll see if it is indeed possible that the monster shark lives let's start with a fairly common argument from Megalodon state survival what I've seen around the claim that since other supposedly extinct animals have been rediscovered this means Megalodon could still be out there too the prime example used in this argument is that of the coelacanth I'm sure many of you will have heard of this remarkable story a kind of fish known only from fossils and therefore assumed to be extinct was in fact discovered to be living off the coast of East Africa these animals were found alive back in 1938 and since then a second population has even been discovered to inhabit waters around Indonesia and coelacanths are not small fish some individuals have been known to reach lengths of about two meters or even more so there's proof that large bodied fish once considered extinct can actually turn out to still be very much extant therefore Megalodon still exists to right the problem with this argument is that one species late survival does not in any way mean that another species could also still be alive it's not a good argument to make as there's nothing to say the one fish species being around for longer than we expected has any implications for a completely different fish species especially with this particular case since coelacanths are a much smaller animal than the estimated sizes from Megalodon so would therefore be far more able to avoid our detection so long and the two animals are adapted to very different life styles anyway making it unwise to compare their situations another argument that is sometimes put forwards is the discovery of the megamouth shark proving that large marine animals are still being uncovered in relatively recent years the megamouth shark a deep-sea filter feeder that can reach lengths of over five meters was first discovered in November of 1976 when an individual was found tangled with a u.s. Navy anchor it is undoubtedly a remarkable thing that such a big shark species was discovered as recently as the 70s but using this animals discovery as proof that Megalodon could be in a similar situation is deeply flawed the megamouth shark lives in the mesopelagic zone of the ocean the area that stretches from 200 meters down to a thousand meters and it filter feeds on small organisms such as krill this is very different to how we know Megalodon lived we'll look at megalodons ecology in more detail later but for now understand the Megalodon was certainly not a specially adapted mesopelagic filter feeder megamouth also migrated up and down the water column following the movement of their prey staying at lower depths during the day and then moving upwards to shallower regions at night because of this elusive behavior and its habitat of deep waters the very nature of the megamouth shark quickly explains why it remained undiscovered for such a length of time in addition to this the animals would not have been encountered by fishing vessels either since their planktivores and so would have no reason to be attracted to bait megamouth sharks also possess numerous evolutionary innovations that allow them to live in the fashion they do at depth in a nutrient deficient regions of the ocean the animals have a special adaptation of the gills called gill rakers in order to capture and retain the tiny krill and other planktonic organisms they feed on and their skeletons are particularly poorly calcified also possessing flabby bodies in order to help them survive better at depth as well as all this they are highly inactive animals even less active than the other filter feeding shark species from what we can tell about the behavior and ecology of Megalodon this is nothing like how that animal lived and therefore the megamouth argument is not an effective one to make in favor of Megalodon slit survival these are two very different show and the adaptations that the megamouth has are incredibly specialized developments that would have taken a long time to evolve so they aren't something that Megalodon could have evolved in the last two million years now we come to another very common line of discussion in support of a contemporary Megalodon that the oceans are so vastly unexplored and we have no idea what could be lurking down in the depths so surely Megalodon could have avoided our detection so far well as I've just explained this is not the kind of animal that we know Megalodon to have been though that probably would be enough food available for large macro predatory sharks such as Megalodon to feed on a great depths in the ocean for example by hunting giant squid like sperm whales do that's not the issue with this suggestion the issue is that as I said before this is not the niche the Megalodon fill'd not only would it need multiple specialized adaptations that are almost certainly did not possess in order to live a depth but evidence from the fossil record indicates to us exactly how these animals actually lived and behaved and as I just mentioned suggesting that Megalodon a shark very specialized for one niche has somehow evolved all the specializations needed to become adapted to living in the deep sea and under 2 million years is not a feasible claim to make all the evidence shows us that Megalodon was an inhabitant of shallow warm tropical seas near coasts Megalodon was adapted to being a fast active predator of large animals such as prehistoric whales and any other marine mammals that came across not to living in the nutrient-poor cold regions of the deep ocean so if it was still alive people would be witnessing the animal all the time near the surface and shallow coastal seas where it would be in plain sight of humans how do we know where the animal lived fossilized Megalodon teeth are uncovered from rocks that represent shallow warm sea environments for example the Calvert formation in Maryland and evidence of bite marks on prehistoric whale skeletons indicate they inhabited the same areas as coastal whale species interestingly there's also evidence to suggest that the Sharks used NASA ground situated in even shallower coastal regions as collections of small Megalodon teeth have been recovered from sites in Panama and South Carolina it's possible that juvenile megalodons remained in these areas to mature in the absence of other predators that could pose a threat to them before moving out into waters with larger prey avail this discovery just goes to show that these sharks were not always the brutal bloodthirsty monsters some people like to make them out to be they were actually real animals that were vulnerable as small neonates having said that though I'd now like to mention the hunting strategies that these animals employed which were fairly brutal and bloodthirsty Megalodon may have had a similar hunting strategy to the modern great white shark although it differed in that it seems Megalodon targeted the bony areas of its prey instead of the soft underbelly like a great white does by attacking these tough of regions on the whales such as the ribs Megalodon would have been able to puncture their internal organs causing them to quickly bleed out the teeth of the giant sharks were perfectly suited to crushing through bone causing incredible amounts of damage to the unfortunate cetaceans that got in their way the Sharks also frequently targeted the flippers of their mammalian prey ripping them off or damaging them beyond use to stop the animals from getting away before swiftly ending the lives of poor whales what does this have to do with Megalodon slate survival well we can clearly see the evidence of this kind of predation on the fossilized bones of prehistoric whales other mammals and even sea turtles indicated by the presence of large gouges that match the shape of Megalodon teeth there are also a few fossil finds where Megalodon teeth were preserved embedded in the fossil vertebrae of cetaceans all of this proving with absolute certainty that this is what Megalodon fed on and how hunted so if it still exists today we would see these animals hunting modern whales and other marine mammals and shallow coastal waters or at least evidence of bite marks from giant sharks on whale carcasses however there is no evidence from any whale specimens that indicates attacks by giant sharks as Lauder's Megalodon and no preserved bones with gouges from Megalodon teeth younger than the estimated time of the creatures extinction not to mention that the actual structure of the oceans ecosystems would be very different if a huge super predator like Megalodon were still present and the impacts a population of such animals would have on the trophic levels below them not only would we be finding evidence of predation elicitation x' but we'd also be finding shed unfossilized Megalodon teeth that were from modern times all sharks frequently lose teeth and we can quite easily find the structures washed up on beaches along regions where the animals live so if Megalodon was actually still alive and had somehow avoided our direct detection we would find their teeth anyway allowing us to confirm their late survival that way however no modern unfossilized Megalodon teeth have ever been found despite certain claims Megalodon teeth are especially unique and easy to identify so there's no doubt that if any modern ones were found we would know immediately what they had come from regardless of this fact there are myths that have managed to find their way into the literature about unfossilized Megalodon teeth being discovered this misunderstanding seems to have come from the way these certain teeth were described the specimens were collected when an oceanographic survey vessel dredged the teeth up from the seafloor and were covered in layers of a mineral called manganese dioxide which precipitates from the water over the course of many thousands of years once the specimens are cleaned of this mineral the underlying quality of preservation is so good that sometimes the teeth appear like they have come from a live shark occasionally even being collared slightly white due to chemical variations in the mineral coverings a publication from the 50s documented teeth in such a condition but failed to specify that they were fossilized and so the myth of fresh Megalodon teeth has infiltrated the cryptozoological literature but this is not the only misconception when it comes to Megalodon teeth and the argument for a survival some supporters of megalodons contemporaneous existence have pointed to a 1959 study that used the rate of deposition of the previously mentioned manganese dioxide to calculate the age of two Megalodon teeth recovered from the South Pacific this study found the teeth to be between 11,000 and 24,000 years old a significantly shorter time ago compared to the generally accepted date of extinction of 2.6 million years ago some people have therefore argued that this favours Megalodon still being alive today nevertheless it turns out that the rate of deposition of manganese dioxide is highly variable and fluctuations in iron ions and other elements in the water can greatly alter how of the mineral is precipitated in a certain amount of time the huge ranges of variation and estimates once all this is taken into account therefore makes dating from manganese dioxide deposition rates far too unreliable to be trusted there are also some different claims of megladon tea from rocks younger than 2.6 million years but they are all now confirmed to have been specimens that have been eroded from older rocks and subsequently redeposited in younger sediments I'll just quickly reiterate here what I mentioned at the start of the video the 2013 Shark Week documentary was faked there were brief disclaimers in the actual thing that confirmed this and it got a lot of negative media attention for spreading misinformation nothing about it supports megalodons the survival in any way also apparently there was a video posted on a Facebook page back in 2016 that allegedly showed footage of a 50 foot Megalodon at the bottom of the Mariana Trench unsurprisingly it did not show a magma dawn it was a reposted video of a 22 foot sleeper shark off the coast of Japan all right my witness accounts then well eyewitness accounts are infamously untrustworthy but we'll have a look at some anyway one of the most commonly brought up eyewitness tales is that of a group of Australian fishermen in the year 1918 the story goes that these experienced fishers witnessed a large shark take their crayfish pots and the sight of this creature frightened them so much that they refused to go back to the area for several days they described the animal has been completely white in color and said that it was between 150 to 300 feet in length hmm seems plausible clearly this length has been tremendously over-exaggerated likely due to the men's state of shock and the very fact that this is an anecdotal unverified story means that cannot serve as particularly convincing evidence in addition to this the description of a white coloration contradicts the animals identity as Megalodon since Megalodon operated in a similar way to the great whites near the surface it would almost certainly have had the same dorsal ventral countershading of gray on the upper surface and white on the underbelly which makes the animal harder for prey to detect when viewed from above or below and even if Megalodon had somehow adapted to living in the deep ocean in modern times which it certainly wouldn't have this doesn't explain the color as deep ocean sharks possessed dark colorations so this eyewitness account is a fairly useless one with no way of confidently confirming or discrediting it but several red flags when it comes to how reliable of an observation it may have been therefore most likely a made-up tale all right next account in 1927 or 28th author and fish's aim gray was in the South Pacific Ocean when he saw a large shark next to his boat that was yellow and green and had a square head immense pectoral fins and a few white spots well that pretty much sounds like a whale shark the size he claims for the creature exactly matches a whale shark and despite his insistence that it wasn't a whale shark these animals do also have white spots a squarish head and large pectoral fins it seems far more likely that all he saw was a glimpse of a large whale shark than a Megalodon but was distracted by fear into convincing himself that it wasn't a whale shark right then last eyewitness account will mention this one perhaps slightly suspiciously made by Zane Grey son Loren is from 1933 again in the same area in the South Pacific Ocean once again he looked over the side of his boat and saw a large shark next to the vessel and again the size he gave fits with the whale shark he described the animal as yellowish and as possessing a huge round head and then goes on to give a completely inaccurate description of what a whale shark looks like saying that what he saw didn't look like that gray wrote that the whale shark has a distinctive white published green appearance with large brown spots and a much narrower head however whale sharks are usually gray on their backs with white or yellowish spots and have wide squarish but rounded heads so it seems like that's exactly what he saw again there's no definitive way to prove or disprove these accounts and so they're not particularly helpful in establishing whether Megalodon is still alive we won't look at any more i winner stories even though there are some others as hopefully you can tell by now that they're pretty unreliable and cannot be used as good solid evidence of Megalodon still a survival my witnesses are liable to exaggerate details and recall things they didn't really see all from memories of glimpses they may have only had for a few seconds and end up attributing what they saw to pre-existing ideas of giant prehistoric sharks [Music] finally let's briefly entertain the possibility of a ridiculous scientific cover-up as some people have suggested it doesn't make any sense at all for this to be the case as scientists work independently to analyze discoveries and evidence before coming to their own conclusions it's not like there's some massive group of all the scientists in the world that decides on one conclusion many people have all independently examined the evidence and come to the same logical verdict the Megalodon is not still with us besides I doubt it would be a very successful cover-up since the potential value of Megalodon meat to fishing companies would ensure that it would be being sold off all the time to people all over the world at incredible prices as one source points out with the current price of a pound of mako shark meat going for $30 an average Megalodon can be sold for around three million dollars so there we have it an overwhelming amount of data and evidence that points to Megalodon being long dead before we end this video let me just make something clear there's nothing wrong with fantasizing about prehistoric creatures still being alive today it's fun to think about and for the most part fairly harmless the harm comes when he start to completely disregard the evidence that contradicts the lay survival of such creatures and instead cherry-pick the evidence you find favorable and in support of an extinct animals continued presence or even worse completely make up evidence and turn it into a documentary anyway personally I don't think we need Megalodon to still be alive for the oceans to be a mysterious or fascinating place they already are the organisms that currently inhabit our oceans are some of the most incredible beings to ever have existed on this planet and there are already some truly terrifying animals that lurk in these modern waters yes Megalodon was a wonderful fearsome predator and it will be or inspiring to witness a living one but we should still appreciate the animals we can actually see especially when they desperately need our help apologies if I've left any specific cases of sightings or other lines of argument out of this video though I doubt there's anything that could significantly weigh against the overwhelming evidence that opposes this animals proposed survival into modern times well I've tried to keep this video as objective as possible and hopefully it can serve as a decent review of the reasons why this animal not still exist today though I seem to have recollections of the last time I attempted to explain claims of late surviving prehistoric animals and the kinds of people and comments it attracted I suspect a similar thing may occur here so I'm sure the comments of this video will be an entertaining if not slightly depressing read I can almost see the like to dislike ratio now I'd also like to dedicate this video to a certain member of my geology class who has been encouraging me to make this video for a long time I hope it was worth the wait thank you for watching this video I really hope you enjoyed it and learn something new hopefully you've also enjoyed all the videos we've made for Shark Week this year it's certainly been fun for me doing this research and learning new things about such a fantastic group of animals if you enjoyed it let us know and we'll do it again next year perhaps with the less Megalodon though I've heard there are a few other prehistoric sharks if you'd like to learn more about our world its history and the wonderful life that surrounds us all please feel free to subscribe to the channel if you think we deserve it and if you would like to see more from us [Music]

Channel: Ben G Thomas

Views: 932,823

Keywords: Biology, Science, Paleontology, Palaeontology, Dinosaurs, Animals, Nature, Wildlife, Ben, Thomas, Prehistory, Anatomy, Fossil, Bones, megalodon, carcharocles, carcharodon, shark, tooth, cryptozoology, family friendly

Id: dUflhB3qGGs

Length: 18min 36sec (1116 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 29 2018