This is a question that kinda bugs me, but who here thinks the Megalodon is still alive? I think it is because:
We only discovered a small portion of our ocean, which means there could be one or more still out there. Just look at the coelacanth. It was thought to be extinct, but one was fished out in 1938, which means there are more out there.
There was even a possible sighting in Australia in 1918 when a few fishermen were catching crayfish and said to have spotted a hundred foot gray/white shark, which could possible be a real Megalodon.

But I dont know, your opinions. For those that don't know what a Megalodon is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon

This post was edited by Bloober on May 10 2009 06:05pm

I heard there was a T-rex sighting in Africa also. Must be those damn aliens.

Really? Is there like an article about it?

I highly doubt an animal the size of megalodon would continue to exist millions of years after it's supposed extinction. Coelacanths survived unseen because they are relatively small fish (Compared to a 100+ foot shark) native mostly to the waters around Africa, this means it was not known to the western world, despite the fact locals knew of it long before.

A megalodon would be a little harder to hide, and I would doubt our ocean's ecosystem to be able to support any sizable number of such creatures.

Good info, but remember, we've only discovered a small portion of our ocean (5% I believe?). Who knows, maybe a possible living Megalodon feeds on something we haven't discovered before, possibly a new species of a whale or something

This post was edited by Bloober on May 10 2009 06:51pm

The thing is you have a valid point, however what is in the rest of the undiscovered ocean is mostly chemosynthesis bacteria and organisms that do not need oxygen for survival. Most of the ocean is extremely cold, in fact it is mostly a hostile environment where a creature with the size of a Magalodon would easily require some sort of diet that is shark like.

In deep, hostile ocean environments, large animals such as whales and large sharks search for weak animals and easy targets. Imagine a shark a hundred times the length of a great white, it would be able to literally consume a blue whale easily.

Blue whales are consumed mostly by humans, not large sharks. Interestingly I do believe somewhere in the depths of the oceans a giant shark surely lurks with proportions that would only fit nightmares. A 100ft shark is pretty insane, I doubt it exists.

not 100 foot but i'd say like 30 maybe

You bring up a good point there, but I doubt it's a hundred feet long. 100ft sounds way too exaggerated (I dont know why the fishermen in 1918 getting crayfish said it was over 100ft, although some said it was over 300ft O_o). The largest recorded megalodon was around 60-70 feet, sounds reasonable, right? Our ecosystem can probably handle it, depending on how much it eats by any chance,

It isnt a hundred feet. Its around 60-70 feet. If you shorten it to 30 feet, youre only comparing that to the Great white shark

Okay excuse me lol.

i didn't think them jokers got that big