What creatures lurk in the deep sea?

seeing as only 1-5% of the deep sea floor has been explored then what kind of huge animals are still undiscovered?
apparently there is no reasonable explanation to prove the megladon is actually extinct and could very well still be alive and has been spotted over the years (so was the "kraken" that we now know as the colossal squid)
but just a theory i thought of is with the beached whales and dolphins that are always beached but we dont know why - could it be that something so huge that it could chase a whole whale/dolphin pack to land in a desperate bid to escape?

Nice OP mamasita

Being the shark "tragic" as I have been since I was a little kid, the continued existence of C.Megalodon has always thrilled my mind since before I saw Jaws as a 10 yr old...

The thought of such a massive predator still roaming the deepest parts of our oceans, esp the Pacific, is something that makes me wonder over and over to this day...

Again, thanks for the post

reply to post by mamasita

I fail to see how even a massivly huge creature could "scare" a whale into beaching. Its not like sharks scare small fish into beaching.

Also, can you give some examples of the "has been spotted over the years"? I've never heard any story of a enormous predatory shark, aside from "big" great whites (which doesnt even come close to a megalodon).

here's a vid from youtube that purports to be that of a Meg, i'm not sure about that though. i think this vid has been posted before but i'm just reposting this here for the sake of conversation.



and here's one that will definitely convince an entire pod of whales that they'd be better off on land (thus the beachings).




Happy New Year everyone!

edit: wrong vid

[edit on 12.30.07 by toreishi]

Hi Toreishi,
Interesting youtube video about the supposed meg.If that is a normal sized shark cage in the back ground then dang thats one big shark.I will say that it looks like a whale shark to me.I am no expert but that is my opinion.Then again I won't be swimming in the ocean just to be on the safe side.Again nice video

hi othello,

some comments on youtube regarding the first vid I posted say that it is a Greenland Sleeper shark. for comparison kindly view the videos below.

Greenland Shark


Whale Shark


make of it what you will and I ain't no expert too.

edit: the video in question is being discussed here and the concensus seems to be that it is a Greenland Sleeper shark.

some info on the Sleeper shark can be found here and here

Wiki

[edit on 12.30.07 by toreishi]

reply to post by toreishi

I for one think its a weak video. To me, its clearly not a megalodon:

- The other sharks are no doubt small deep sea sharks, probably sub 1m. It doesnt look like it could outsize a basking shark.

- Its slow and doesnt seem to show much agression. Doesnt even look predatory... Especially not being the apex of all predatory sharks.

Which shark is it? I dont know. An unknown species? Possibly, I just dont think its the megalodon. I does not match either a whale shark or basking shark (doesnt even look close to the whale and lacks the large gills of the basking).

[edit on 30-12-2007 by merka]

reply to post by merka


fish arent mammals - whales and dolphins breathe air so they wont be as afraid to go to shallow waters as mammals.
and known sharks may not beach fish but dolphins and orcas do.

ps here is just one example of megladon sighting - if you want to find more - theres plenty if you just google it.

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 sea 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." These crayfish pots, it should be mentioned, were about 3 feet 6 inches in diameter and frequently contained from two to three dozen good-sized crayfish each weighing several pounds. The men were all unanimous that this shark was something the like of which they had never dreamed of. In company with the local Fisheries Inspector I questioned many of the men very closely and they all agreed as to the gigantic stature of the beast. But the lengths they gave were, on the whole, absurd. I mention them, however, as an indication of the state of mind which this unusual giant had thrown them into. And bear in mind that these were men who were used to the sea and all sorts of weather, and all sorts of sharks as well. One of the crew said the shark was "three hundred feet long at least"! Others said it was as long as the wharf on which we stood--about 115 feet! They affirmed that the water "boiled" over a large space when the fish swam past. They were all familiar with whales, which they had often seen passing at sea, but this was a vast shark. They had seen its terrible head which was "at least as long as the roof on the wharf shed at Nelson's Bay." Impossible, of course! But these were prosaic and rather stolid men, not given to 'fish stories' nor even to talking about their catches. Further, they knew that the person they were talking to (myself) had heard all the fish stories years before! One of the things that impressed me was that they all agreed as to the ghostly whitish color of the vast fish."(3)

www.strangemag.com...

reply to post by mamasita

I dont know, but there's just something about that story that strikes me as exaggeration...

i think the meg could still be there somewhere in the deep where few if any have done research who knows we may even have a chance one day to see video or pics of it as for the shark in that video im not a expert but it does look realy huge.

The Meg discussion has been examined on ATS numerous times, and as the general consensus has always been, there is just not enough food to satisfy a creature with this appetite.
In order for a creature of this size and appetite to exist, its believed it would have to come from the deeps consistently in order to feed, thus more sightings and even film documentation, with today's technology.

I wish this weren't the case, I would so much like to see them still around.

What, exactly, would a megalodon eat out there in the open water? There's simply not enough whales to support a relict population of megalodon. The majority of whales live along the continental shelves, and fossils put megalodons in the same areas, as well as their relatives the great whites being known to stick to these areas for the most part. And we do actually have a pretty good idea about these regions. Fifty-foot sharks that need to eat tons of whale meat per day just to stay alive would certainly be rather noticeable, after all.

So what, do they hang out in the abyssal zone when we're looking for them? Unlikely.

omg its quite obvious! if there is a megladon - which i'm not saying there is but could be likely - and we havent discovered such a huge creature - then wat else could be lurking down there for it to eat? colossal squid for starters - and oh we just discovered them too!

reply to post by mamasita

See, there's the problem in a nutshell. Could the megalodon eat colossal squid? Quite possible. Except the colossal squid would probably eat the megalodon in reality. Especially if its the nearsighted slow moving giant sloth seen in the video.

Alien motherships. U.S. submarines dont just run into cliffs.

www.cbsnews.com...

For some reason, my computer is being a jerk and will not let me watch the videos.

Is it possible that some of these "Meg" videos on Youtube are referring to the Megamouth shark, and not the megalodon?

Megamouth Shark

I don't believe that any of them are actually of megalodons. Even though I would be thrilled to know that they were still out there, I highly doubt it. And, it's probably better off for them not to still be around... it would just be a matter of time before they were hunted anyway.

And the 1918 account that was mentioned earlier has been pretty much regarded as exaggeration if I'm not mistaken. They go into a little bit of detail about it on Wikipedia. Megalodon

Great post and yeah its been discussed so many times however toreishi your first video looks like a asian game show or an interview show due to the bottom left corner showing a man laughing and if anyone can translate it it would probably lead to the answer. The shark closely resembles a great white which is the closest relative to the great megaladon. Also on the wikipedia link hypnotoad posted relates to a new show that hasn't been released yet. The Megamouth was only officially discovered in the 80's so could the megalodon be alive. Its possible because of the sperm whales that do go missing and the giant squid wouldn't stand a chance. The shark in the video is most likely a robot because it doesn't even act like a great white even though it is based on one.

reply to post by Semoro


well just to clarify things a bit; the first video i posted has already been discussed in a separate thread here on ATS so i apologize if i caused some confusion regarding the huge shark featured on that vid. i guess we can continue discussion and/or speculation about the said shark in the thread below so as not to derail this one. thanks.

ATS Link

I've always been way into sea monsters, since I was a kid. Next to Bigfoot they were my biggest fascination.

The lochness monster has apparently been 'debunked' because of all the radar scans of the loch that found nothing (actually, large objects were repeatedly found without explanation). I remember when the guy who faked the infamous nessie photograph confessed on his deathbed, it was like the whole thing came crashing down. Then a month later people were seeing Nessie at the loch again and continue to this day

There is a famous lake monster around where I live but I don't like to be specific about my location. So many people had seen it that I was scared to swim out too far and still get terrifying mental images of some huge fish/serpent swimming underneath me. The first time I swam out further than 200 feet from the shore my foot got snagged by seaweed you can imagine how close I came to drowning myself.


I think 'champ' is a verified Nessie that has alot of evidence and sightings to back it up.

When it comes to sea monsters, the japanese 'anomaly' that they pulled up from the sea looked exactly like a plesiosaurus which had been rotting in the watter for a month or two. They took a photo of it and dumped it back into the ocean to avoid contaminating their fish supply. Funny thing is, if they had kept the damn thing it would have made history and it would be considered a fact that certain dinosaurs did survive extinction.

Here is the photo

In the deep? You mean aside from lawyers?
Anyway, that corpse has been proven to actually be a whale shark, the way they decompose, parts dropping off and the like, leaves the shape of a pleisiosaur behind.
Personally I'm interested in the video from monster quest of the giant squid, seeing as how it was estimated to be much larger than any squid previously thought.