Megalodan, are they still alive and still swimming near you?

Not sure how many would be required to "maintain" a breeding population as that would require knowledge of the breeding and social habits of that particular shark, but you could use the Great White as a comparison (it being one of the biggest known Sharks and similar to the Megalodon)

The Great White takes up to 12 years to reach sexual maturity, although can take only 10 years. They will then each have a litter of between 4 to 14 pups and may only breed up to 6 times in a lifetime. Take into account that many of the young will not survive, and you have very few sharks being "produced". They do have a very long life though, some living up to 25-30 years.

Diet wise, several studies have been conducted on what they eat and how much they eat. Great Whites, even though they are warm blooded, are remarkably efficient with their energy.

One study, by Frank Carey of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, tracked a shark that was seen feeding off a Fin Whale carcass, nr Long Island. That shark was tagged and tracked and it would appear that, from data gathered, that particular shark didn't need to feed again for perhaps up to 2 months, although 1-1.5 months would be more likely. It would appear that they do not require quite as much food as one would think, certainly they are more efficient with their energy than any mammal predator.

Couple this with the fact that they will eat almost anything with blubber (seals, whales, dolphins) and large fish such as Mackerel, Tuna etc and you can see that the ocean is more than capable of sustaining a significant giant Shark population that would be capable of breeding.

Especially if the Megalodon is as big as thought, then it would be quite capable of bringing down a good sized whale, which would keep it well fed for quite some time.

Sources:

Biology of Sharks and Rays

The Great White Shark

Stumason, that was a great answer, and amazingly fast.

Maybe I should post questions about my taxes on here.

Oh, and Stu... thanks a lot... now I'll never go in the water again.

Originally posted by dissbelief
Stumason, that was a great answer, and amazingly fast.

Maybe I should post questions about my taxes on here.

Oh, and Stu... thanks a lot... now I'll never go in the water again.

Haha, no worries. Not a Shark "expert" myself, just googled and put it into my own words and from what I already knew. It was quick as I (was) having a quiet time at work

Taxes? Hmm...not sure about that one, but you could give it a go

its just like how some say there is still a dinosaur in the forests in south america. will we ever know?

I have always wondered if a frozen megalodon could be found in the ice, but since meg was thought to have lived in tropical to temperate waters i think it might be unlikely. Meg would probably get too cold before it got to a coast with ice and turn back IMO anyway. It is thought that meg is an ancestor to both the great white and tiger sharks, so maybe searching in habitats similiar to those might turn up something, but i sure am not going out there. I have heard of military subs tracking large ocean dwellers but that might just be urban legend although i think a sub would have the best chance of runing into one. An interesting idea though is to try to extract DNA from teeth, although this might be dificult, and inseminate a female white shark with it, also difficult since whites usually dont survive captivity.
but dont turn it lose! keep it in a very very large aquarium lol. anyway maybe will we gwt lucky and find a meg in ice.

>I've just sent email dogsbreathdivers and sport diver magazine
>asking for confirmation.

Sorry...it's been almost two weeks and I've yet to receive any reply from anyone at either website.

YOu no i have always been intrged by this topic. I think that it is very possible that megaladon still exists. If it were to have similar breeding habits to the Great White Than it is possible. The story from south wales proves that MAYBE Meg has risen from the deep and come to claim the land she once called home. If this then we better run to the nearest church and pray. If Meg was to come back than that could alter the whole delicate ballance on which we rely so heavily on. It would be very important to try and eliminate the Meg(s) before they seriously started to breed quickly and start to make a come back. As Steve Alten wrote in his books, there may even be a beast in the Mariana Trench in a specific part called the Devils Purgatory that could possibly swallow a Meg in one bite. Thats right, swallow Charadon Megaladon in ONE BITE!! If this beast were to possibly rise from the deep and start to breed in shallower water than we could have a world issue on our hands. This beast is supposed to be over 120 feet long with a head as long as a school bus-about 60 feet. Who knows what else could possibly be living down in the Mariana Trench that could mean the Apoccolypse for man kind. There could be unknown species with characteristcs such as Godzilla. The could walk on land and cause unknown damage and savagry on the countries of the world. We need to start to explore all of our ocean trenches to see if possibly anything like this could ever happen.

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


Totally Right!!

A Godzilla monster? Please! It would be impossible for such a beast to exist in number. There are only so many giant squid to feed on and if one should come about by a fluke.....

Nothing an armed F-22 couldn't handle. In real life flesh and blood animals are not indestructible.

I would hope they're extinct like we think!!

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


This topic fasinates me so much! I really do not hope that all of the Megs are extinct. I love sharks and knowing that we as humans are scared more of shark attacks than anything else. I love the book by Steve Alten (hope i got his last name right!). I think that i have read it more than 50 times and each time I put myself into Terry Taylors position. Just to venture into the deep and see what mother nature had to offer so many millions of years ago. And to know that we know more about the farthest planets than we do about the deepest oceans is almost scary. Wouldn't we want to know more about what is on our own planet? I know I do. If i could have the chance to go into The Trench. I would. As for the topic of this forum. I hope that we still have these beautiful, magnificint beast among us. Not to say that I wouldnt be scared out of my mind if i was looking at one, but at the same time I would be in wonder of this.

Originally posted by periwinkle blue
Though there are oftimes revelations of previously extinct 'critters' that are discovered (usually around Madascar or New Jersey)........and those discoveries are in fact fascinating examples of the durability of some life forms............. a living, function Megalodon would have such a voracious appetite, that it could not possibly have gone unnoticed.
It would have cleaned out long ago, major areas of fishing in our oceans, and surely have been spotted based only on this 'wake of destruction'

Cool idea though.

Take heart.......... there are lots of other places for lesser varmints to hide.

You sure about that? A shark can get one huge meal and survive off of it for a very long time. A megladon would NOT have to eat fish. It could take one orca for a few weeks worth of nutrition. It wouldn't clear out EVERYTHING in its wake. Look at the blue whales. They don't clear everything out (though they eat smaller creatures).

Just food for thought. You are basing the voracious apetite of the sharks on movies and science fiction rather than reality I'm afraid.

A 12-meter white shark was captured off the northern coast of Chiclayo, Peru, around the year 1990 (I don't remember exactly what year it was) after it got entangled in fishing nets. A picture was published on the front page of "El Comercio", the most important journal of the country.

I saw the picture and it was impressive, because it showed the shark on the beach with the fishermen standing beside it, and even if peruvians from the north are not the tallest people in the world, you could certainly not be impressed when comparing the diameter of the shark's body to the height of the men standing beside. I remember the first thing that came to my mind when seeing the picture was that I was seeing a phenomenon of nature, and a "dinosaur" shark. Furthermore, the shark had an expression on its face like it was saying: "sorry, it's not my fault to be like this".

A few days later, after I realised the importance of that picture, I tried to get back a copy of the newspaper, but I didn't find one, and then days went by and I forgot about the matter. That picture must still be in El Comercio's archives though.

Felix
Milan, Italy

no they are not. they arn't causeof this magical (not really) thing called... extinction!!!! no really 10,000 years isn't long relative to the earth's age but it's long enough that anything that was on the verge of extinction is now extinct. that means megaldons to.

Here's a link to an article about this great white shark. Unfortunately you would have to get the "free trial" but I'm not willing to give them my credit card information just to get this single article.

www.highbeam.com...

The article was from the Boston Globe on May 21, 1992. Don't know if there was a picture with the Globe's coverage.

As for Megalodon, I doubt that it would still exist without some kind of evidence being found. I don't think that it would be impossible, but unlikely.

English: Well....Maybe they are, Maybe they arent.
Some scientists think they DID survive the ice age AND the dinosaur extincsion. If they are still alive i would advide you to stay in the shallow water! going on...They were the ancestor of the great white shark and can grow up to 60 feet!!!

Romanian: Ei bine .... Poate sunt, poate ei arent.
Unii oameni de ştiinţă cred că ei au făcut supravieţui gheaţă vârstă şi de dinozaur extincsion. În cazul în care sunt încă în viaţă, aş advide să stai în ape! întâmplă ... Ei au fost strămoş de mare rechin alb şi poate creşte până la 60 de picioare!

Italian: Beh .... Forse sono, Forse arent.
Alcuni scienziati pensano che il ghiaccio DID sopravvivere età e il dinosauro extincsion. Se sono ancora vivo mi advide di soggiorno in acqua! in corso ... Erano l'antenato del grande squalo bianco e può crescere fino a 60 piedi!

Chineze: 嗯....也许是这样，也许他们arent 。
一些科学家认为，他们没有生存的冰年龄和恐龙extincsion 。如果他们还活着，我advide你留在浅水！继续...他们的祖先大白鲨和可成长为60英尺!!!!

Hindi: खैर .... शायद वे, शायद वे arent हैं.
कुछ वैज्ञानिकों वे और डायनासोर extincsion बर्फ उम्र जीवित किया है. अगर वे अब भी उथले पानी में रहने के लिए आप advide होता मैं जिंदा हो! चल रहा है ... वे महान सफेद शार्क के पूर्वज थे और 60 फीट तक बढ़ सकता है!

Spanish: Bueno .... Tal vez lo son, lo mejor que arent.
Algunos científicos piensan que hicieron sobrevivir a la edad de hielo y el dinosaurio extincsion. Si todavía están vivos i advide que usted permanezca en el agua! pasa ... Ellos fueron los antepasados del gran tiburón blanco y puede crecer hasta 60 pies!

Czech: No .... Možná jsou, možná jsou arent.
Někteří vědci domnívají, že to přežije ledovou A je dinosauří extincsion. Pokud jsou ještě naživu i advide by vám pobyt v mělké vodě! děje ... Byli předchůdce na velký bílý žralok a může růst až do 60 stop!


ps. Sorry for all languages!

[ sorry if some of the words arent spelt properly!!!]

i really do think there still alive a predator that big couldn't died out so beware of the megalodon lol

God the thought that megaldon existed is scary in itself


*shivers^

I am not sure, but if it still lived and in deep water. What would the water do to it's cartilage, which supposedly makes up most of it's body except for the jaw bone

reply to post by periwinkle blue


I think there is a misunderstanding of the biology and feeding habits of many large undersea predators. The giant squid as well as some other large fauna remained undetected for many many years and were thought to be only legend but as we have seen recently despite men traveling the oceans for thousands of years they are in fact real animals! The giant squid also has a voracious appetite but you dont see them wiping out schools of fish or the fishing industry? These animals stick to the ocean depths and do there feeding there, only rarely venturing to the surface, so the argument that a megalodon or other species of giant shark could not exist because of there feeding habits is not necessarily relevant. We know very little about the deep parts of the oceans which have not been explored in most cases. For all we know the whole Atlantean civilization could be down there and we wouldn't necessarily know it! The giant squid, mountain gorilla and other supposed legendary/extinct species were all discovered after years of eyewitness sightings and reports just like is happening today with the class of species we call cryptids until their existence can be verified by science. Someday the great white shark may turn out to be a small shark compared to what may still exist in the ocean depths?