The Horror of the Deep Blue Sea: Giant Megalodon Shark - 28 October, 2002

Ancient giant shark might still be flourishing in the vast oceans of the planet

The scientific name of the giant shark literally means a “great tooth.” Megalodon had these big teeth indeed, according to archeological excavations. The ancient  Carcharodon Megalodon looked like  great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). The Megalodon shark was a great danger to  sea-lion populations. Is it still a great danger?

Hundreds of Megalodon teeth that have been found in the oceans and rock beds all over the world prove that the giant shark was about 80 feet long (almost 25 meters). Only a sperm-whale is larger than Megalodon, which makes the giant shark  the largest predator on Earth ever, including dinosaurs. Scientists say that the giant shark could swallow a small car, but most likely, this is an exaggeration.  The shark from the movie “Jaws” is a small fish in comparison with the Megalodon monster shark. However, doesn’t zoology go too far when  it says that this monster shark might still live nowadays?

Great white shark experts Richard Ellis  and John E. McCosker included a chapter about Megalodon in their book “Great White Shark” (1991). Richard Ellis  wrote that all the fossilized shark teeth found so far indicated that the shark is extinct. However, Ellis added that the discovery a recent tooth of the monster would be a great concern to all zoologists. If  this happens, "we would know that the giant shark became extinct quite recently," wrote Ellis, "or is flourishing somewhere in the vastness of the oceans and has simply lost a tooth."

Can it be possible?  Almost everyone who has studied the  giant shark realizes that if Megalodon is extinct,  it happened not long ago, from the geological point of view. The great Megalodon lived 50 million years ago. However, Ellis affirms that the monster became extinct “recently” – about ten thousand years ago.

History proves that these large animals might remain hidden from the modern science, especially when it comes to the deep ocean. If the famous coelacanth fish could remain undisturbed for 60 million years, why couldn’t the Megalodon shark survive  ten thousand years? To all appearances, Ellis does not see much of a problem there: "Except for the fact that we have not found one, there appears to be no reason why Megalodon might not be flourishing today." Ellis feels that no concrete evidence has been found for Megalodon's current existence. "But there will always be those who keep hoping that one will appear. Let us hope we are not in the water when it does."
 

Has it already appeared? Ellis wrote about an amazing incident, which happened in Australia. It was taken from David G. Stead's “Sharks and Rays of Australian Seas,” published in 1963.

“In the year 1918, I recorded the sensation that had been caused among the "outside" crayfish men at Port Stephens, when, for several days, they refused to go  to their regular fishing grounds in the vicinity of Broughton Island. The men had been at work on the fishing grounds--which lie in deep water--when an immense shark of almost unbelievable proportions put in an appearance, lifting pot after pot containing many crayfishes, and taking, as the men said, "pots, mooring lines, and all."

Those crayfish pots were three feet and six inches in diameter. They basically contained up to three dozens large crayfish, each weighing several pounds. All the people who saw it said that the shark was unimaginably monstrous. However,  the lengths that they gave were absurd. Most likely, they were overwhelmed with what they saw. But  these were  men who were used to the sea, all sorts of weather, and all kinds of sharks. One of those men said that that shark was at least 300 feet (92 meters) long.  Others said that it was as long as their pier: almost 115 feet (35 meters).

The men said that the water was “boiling,” when the fish swam past. They all saw huge whales swimming in the ocean, but they were all unanimous that it was an immense shark. They saw its horrible head, which was "at least as long as the roof on the wharf shed at Nelson's Bay." Furthermore, all the men said that the shark was of the ghostly whitish color. The deep blue sea is full of monsters, as you can see.

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov