# Shark Week 2013- Do yo think megalodon exists?



## JZC (Aug 4, 2013)

Ah Shark Week! Gotta love it. Do you think megalodon still exists? I think it is possible, and kind of want it to. There is a scientific possibility. What do you think? Anyone else like shark week?


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## lancej (Aug 4, 2013)

How can you not like Shark Week?  I think it is possible for a large shark species to exist that is not known to science (or previous ones thought to be extinct).


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 4, 2013)

I don't think its possible, mainly because of the mermaids thing. It just sounds like they made it up. The same aftershow sort of thing was also made with the mermaids. I don't see how a shark that is 50 feet long, and eats whales could hide both itself and its carnage. Also, the whales Megalodon preyed upon were much larger. Why would it not go after other whales, like Right Whales, Blue Whales, or Sperm Whales?

I wish Megalodon was still alive. That would be awesome.


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## freedumbdclxvi (Aug 4, 2013)

I love shark week but, no, I don't think they are around anymore.  There is no evidence to support the idea that they are.

Reactions: Like 1


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## MarkmD (Aug 5, 2013)

I think megalodon could still exist, although would be frozen in ice, as it's not been found in recent years we still have a small amount of super huge white sharks roaming the oceans and they are the ancestors of megalodon.


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## Shrike (Aug 5, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> Also, the whales Megalodon preyed upon were much larger. Why would it not go after other whales, like Right Whales, Blue Whales, or Sperm Whales?


Actually, the blue whale is the largest animal ever known to have lived.  Pretty cool.

Reactions: Like 1


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## The Snark (Aug 5, 2013)

That it existed is established fact. There are plenty of fossils, bones and teeth dug up. The only dispute is one of phylogeny. What purpose does this thread serve by implying it's existence is still the subject of debate?


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## JZC (Aug 5, 2013)

The Snark said:


> That it existed is established fact. There are plenty of fossils, bones and teeth dug up. The only dispute is one of phylogeny. What purpose does this thread serve by implying it's existence is still the subject of debate?


I thought it was interesting documentary. What do you think could've destroyed that boat? Not saying it is definitely alive, just possible.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 5, 2013)

JZCtarantulafan said:


> I thought it was interesting documentary. What do you think could've destroyed that boat? Not saying it is definitely alive, just possible.


As I said before, it sounded too much like the mermaids show, which was a fake.


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## The Snark (Aug 5, 2013)

Sorry. I missed the Q 'still exists'. Look, I've been giving mermaids assorted hand tools and implements of destruction for years. If they are finally making progress against the holes in the water that people pour money in just leave them to it, okay?


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## MarkmD (Aug 5, 2013)

The chances are that the original megalodon doesn't exist as a (live entity/animal), but I did say frozen in ice (means the full shark may be intact somehow?), there's still super massive squid/octopus etc that (exist today) same as megalodons time-line 60+ million years ago, it's not out of the question as the great white shark is the closest cousin/ancestor to megalodon.


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## freedumbdclxvi (Aug 5, 2013)

I believe the Snark's remark on phylogeny touches on that - there is debate on whether or not C carcharias is related to C megalodon.


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## feste (Aug 5, 2013)

I believe this was show was considered 'mockumentary' was it not? As in, silliness dressed up to look like a real documentary.

Reactions: Like 1


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## JZC (Aug 5, 2013)

I feel stupid now.


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## MarkmD (Aug 5, 2013)

JZCtarantulafan said:


> I feel stupid now.


Why do you feel stupid?, was it because you didn't think you would get many responses?.


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## JZC (Aug 5, 2013)

MarkmD said:


> Why do you feel stupid?, was it because you didn't think you would get many responses?.


No. I thought it was real.


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## Biollantefan54 (Aug 5, 2013)

Personally, No, I don't think it exists today. There is no way it can, there would be tons of evidence if it was here today. That would be like Godzilla in new York city and not being able to find it.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 5, 2013)

JZCtarantulafan said:


> No. I thought it was real.


It would be awesome if it was. I don't care if I get eaten while swimming. I want a Megalodon tooth. Too bad they are expensive though.


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## MelissaDBrown (Aug 5, 2013)

I feel stupid too. I believed it. I read up on their Facebook it's all fake, just like the Mermaid documentary, which I ALSO believed. I feel even more stupid now. I wish they were real though.


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## cantthinkofone (Aug 5, 2013)

stop feeling stupid ALL of you. do you think Nikola Tesla felt stupid when no one thought his ideas would work? NO! he kept working towards what he believed. all because mockumentaries are made and believed doesnt mean the subject is still fake. for all we know right now a mermaid is eating some fish or a megalodon is killing something.


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## MelissaDBrown (Aug 5, 2013)

OR....a mermaid is swimming with a megalodon


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## cantthinkofone (Aug 5, 2013)

precisely


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## Najakeeper (Aug 6, 2013)

Feeling stupid is quite healthy if you are over the age of 3 and at one point have believed in the existance mermaids...just saying

Reactions: Like 2


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## The Snark (Aug 6, 2013)

I try to feel stupid about something at least once a week. If I don't it usually means I've missed encountering something new. Wish I could feel stupid 84 times a day.

Reactions: Like 1


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## cantthinkofone (Aug 6, 2013)

well you dont have to feel stupid to learn. i go and learn and dont always feel stupid


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## Spepper (Aug 6, 2013)

It would definitely be cool of megalodon still existed.  (Even though I don't watch Shark Week.)  It's not entirely impossible that it doesn't still live in the ocean somewhere.  After all... man has only explored 5% of the ocean, which covers 70% of the earth.  That is a really, _really_ tiny percent of the big picture.


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## kellakk (Aug 6, 2013)

This is the reason I no longer watch TV. Nothing educational is ever on television anymore. There's only fake things pretending to be real (reality shows anyone?).


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## Smokehound714 (Aug 7, 2013)

I'm sticking with carcharocles.  Especially considering there's no real data placing it within Carcharodon. 

  The only real certainty anyone could have is by identifying it as a lamniform shark.  


  I'm pretty sure makos would actually be the closest living relatives.  They did note a finer serration in the teeth, more similar to Isurus than Carcharodon.


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## The Snark (Aug 7, 2013)

cantthinkofone said:


> well you dont have to feel stupid to learn. i go and learn and dont always feel stupid


The first step to learning something is to admit to yourself you don't know it. Then the ego gets in on it and the next thing you know you got a 3 rings circus banging around in the brain hotel. I prefer the short cut: 'DANG! Hey me! Check that out! Why didn't you have that one going from word go? DUHHHH!!!' Then I remember it, sometimes for two weeks or more!



kellakk said:


> This is the reason I no longer watch TV. Nothing educational is ever on television anymore. There's only fake things pretending to be real (reality shows anyone?).


Let's do a retake of the wisdom of Frank Zappa here:
 I am gross and perverted
I'm obsessed 'n deranged
I have existed for years
But very little has changed
I'm the tool of the Government
And industry too
For I am destined to rule
And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious
But you can't look away
I make you think I'm delicious
With the stuff that I say
I'm the best you can get
Have you guessed me yet?
I'm the slime oozin' out
From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don't need you
Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks . . .
Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video
Oozin' along on your livin' room floor


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## Amoeba (Aug 7, 2013)

lancej said:


> How can you not like Shark Week?


Be Will Wheaton, or anybody else butthurt over some D list mockumentary. That photochop was so bad it was laughable......as it was meant to be. 

Megalodon is obviously a real thing since I saw it on TV and this girl at work tells me she finds their teeth in the sand at Venice beach.


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## Shell (Aug 7, 2013)

MarkmD said:


> we still have a small amount of super huge white sharks roaming the oceans and they are the ancestors of megalodon.


I have to try to find the source, but I read an article not long ago that stated that Great Whites are not actual descendants of Megalodon. That our idea of what Megalodon looks like (ie massive great white) is purely that, an idea (since all we have to build off are fossilized teeth). Apparently the Great White is more closely related to the Mako shark than Megalodon. Just found that interesting.

Shark week is a HUGE deal in our house. I have an 8 yr old son who is beyond obsessed with sharks, so we love shark week here.

Reactions: Like 1


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 7, 2013)

I'm that 8 year old...but I'm fifteen.

Reactions: Like 1


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## MarkmD (Aug 7, 2013)

Shell said:


> I have to try to find the source, but I read an article not long ago that stated that Great Whites are not actual descendants of Megalodon. That our idea of what Megalodon looks like (ie massive great white) is purely that, an idea (since all we have to build off are fossilized teeth). Apparently the Great White is more closely related to the Mako shark than Megalodon. Just found that interesting.
> 
> Shark week is a HUGE deal in our house. I have an 8 yr old son who is beyond obsessed with sharks, so we love shark week here.


Alright cool, I didn't do any research on it, although I did watch a couple of megalodon documentaries some years back (so cant recall much) lol. Thanks for the info.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 7, 2013)

I don't understand how Megalodon wasn't the Great White's ancestor because they have almost identical teeth.


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## freedumbdclxvi (Aug 7, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> I don't understand how Megalodon wasn't the Great White's ancestor because they have almost identical teeth.


I hate saying do a google search, but I recommend it in this case.  I don't recall all the evidence that was presented, but it was quite interesting.  I looked it up a few months ago.


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## Biollantefan54 (Aug 7, 2013)

Maybe it is just a coincidence that they have similar teeth? Elephants have similar teeth as us, so do rhinos, there teeth is made for eating grass, ours does the same thing at one time.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 7, 2013)

Biollantefan54 said:


> Maybe it is just a coincidence that they have similar teeth? Elephants have similar teeth as us, so do rhinos, there teeth is made for eating grass, ours does the same thing at one time.


Maybe. 

I don't think much will come from a search, but I'll try it.


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## freedumbdclxvi (Aug 7, 2013)

http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/great-white-shark-evolution

To get you started.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 7, 2013)

freedumbdclxvi said:


> http://ocean.si.edu/ocean-news/great-white-shark-evolution
> 
> To get you started.


Thanks. I guess I was wrong. I'll keep looking.


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## Smokehound714 (Aug 7, 2013)

I got tired of NatGeo focusing on drugs, gangs, and people killing random animals.  Hillbilly Handfishin?  Good grief!

 Discover was alot better back in the day, when they focused on science more.

 Even the show "nature" has lost its appeal to me, but to be fair, I began watching it when George Page was the narrator.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 7, 2013)

Smokehound714 said:


> I got tired of NatGeo focusing on drugs, gangs, and people killing random animals.  Hillbilly Handfishin?  Good grief!
> 
> Discover was alot better back in the day, when they focused on science more.
> 
> Even the show "nature" has lost its appeal to me, but to be fair, I began watching it when George Page was the narrator.


The show Shark Men is currently on Nat Geo Wild and it's a great show. It's all about tagging sharks and learning about the Great White Shark's migration patterns.

Reactions: Like 1


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## skar (Aug 8, 2013)

JZCtarantulafan said:


> No. I thought it was real.


Maybe it is . . . Nobody can really disprove it .
No one knows that it fed on whales ! Maybe it survives in the deep on Giant squid and it does not surface for air obviously.
Maybe it has a very slow reproduction rate and is otherwise blind ? Can't go beyond a certain depth for the pressure change.
Don't be bummed out by nay sayers & internet Quarterbacks throwing bombs.
 It's all just perspective.


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## Shell (Aug 9, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> I don't understand how Megalodon wasn't the Great White's ancestor because they have almost identical teeth.


Here's one article I could find, not the one I initially read, it was far more scientific, but obviously not the only article on the topic. This one sums it up pretty much the same as the other one I read though;

http://www.livescience.com/219-great-whites-descended-mega-sharks.html


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## cantthinkofone (Aug 10, 2013)

ShredderEmp said:


> I'm that 8 year old...but I'm fifteen.


This just made my life.


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## Kaimetsu (Aug 13, 2013)

If you think that megalodon still being around is likely you need to work on your critical thinking skills.  For one thing why did their teeth suddenly disappear from the fossil record 1.5 million years ago?

Anyways screw shark week if you really want to learn about sharks and how awesome they are check out the inside nature's giants episode about the great white.

http://video.pbs.org/video/2192339379/

PBS makes the best documentaries.


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## Shell (Aug 13, 2013)

I have to admit, out of curiosity I watched the Megalodon "documentary" in question...it was pretty awful lol. Awful acting, just bad all around. I found myself just laughing at it, as opposed to even starting to "believe" it could be real.


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## Munch (Aug 13, 2013)

Spepper said:


> It would definitely be cool of megalodon still existed.  (Even though I don't watch Shark Week.)  It's not entirely impossible that it doesn't still live in the ocean somewhere.  After all... man has only explored 5% of the ocean, which covers 70% of the earth.  That is a really, _really_ tiny percent of the big picture.


That is what I am always saying . Who says bigfoot is fake or a blue whale is the biggest animal in the world (and I know it is the biggest KNOWN TO MAN!


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 13, 2013)

Munch said:


> That is what I am always saying . Who says bigfoot is fake or a blue whale is the biggest animal in the world (and I know it is the biggest KNOWN TO MAN!


I say bigfoot is real...


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## Akai (Aug 13, 2013)

Man who knows.  Giant squid exist but we've never seen one alive only washed up decomposed carcasses on beaches or in Sperm Whales stomachs.  Coelacanths were thought to have gone extinct in the Late Cretaceous, but were rediscovered in 1938 off the coast of South Africa and btw that is one ugly fish.  lol  The ocean is so vast and deep and a good amount of it is largely unexplored especially in the *Pacific Rim*.  I hear they have monsters taller then 30 story buildings and you need a giant armored robot to take them on.


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## ShredderEmp (Aug 14, 2013)

Akai, we have seen video of live giant squid. People have tried to raise juvinile giant squid, but they failed. You are right about the chances, and there are for sure animals we haven't discovered yet, but wouldn't you think we would see more evidence on the news? I would also think they would have more TV shows about it. We would also have been seeing them in historical references, wouldn't you think?


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## Smokehound714 (Aug 14, 2013)

There was also a live colossal squid caught on film on a fishing vessel.  

  Also, spectacular footage of giant squid has also been shot.  Albeit, juveniles, but giants, nonetheless.

Reactions: Like 1


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## skar (Aug 20, 2013)

Yet Giant squid were thought to be a myth till fairly recently, so there you go .


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