Anyone think these creatures still exist?

I have been wondering if there is ever really been any proof of a megladon being found or suspected of being seen recently. I was also wonding about the giant squid. Both creatures are fascinating and it would be really cool if we had any recent evidence that they exist. If anyone has any info on these creatures let me know.

Thanks,


al77zzz

``

on the Megladon

theres a fossil bonanza around the Cape Fear river near abouts
Wilmington NC....some day i'd like to scuba or snorkle them parts...

over the years, whenever a 'nor-eastern hits the carolina coasts
my beach combing favors some few sizeable, although damaged
big black teeth....
which i have on 2 occassions had a opportunity to 'scrimshaw' upon,
(i beach comb from calabash nc--> to pawleys island sc)

never heard tales or stories about nothing even remotely Megladon-ish
thats alive in these parts....but theres some 'frankenfish' or mutations or whotnot lurking in the waterway & swamps/brackish waters

- ~?

St Udio:
Where do you believe these frankenstienish creatures are? In the US or further west.

Uh... define "frankensteinish", please?

But yes, there's been giant squids found alive. Blue whales feed on them, in fact. No megalodons were found alive; they died off quite some time ago.

Considering the size and what we know about both the Megladon prehistoric sharks and the giant squid, I think it is unlikely that we would be able to capture live specimens of any great proportions at the moment. Especially with squid, who are elusive and secretive creatures at best, also try to think about the amount of money/energy/time it would take to hunt/track and then capture one of these creatures. I dont believe we currently have the means to bring one of these tpes of creature in for live testing or scientific study as the power and strength they would posses (remember, giant squid sometimes feed on 60-85ft sperm whales, the largest carniverous species on our planet to date) would be awe inpsiringly hard to contain or subdue. As for the megladons, it is possible they could exist, but there would need to be at least a certain number of the species for the gentic gene pool to survive without inbreeding. I have before read threads on site here that explain how many individuals at the very least that would be needed to support such a species as well as the volume of food matter (other fish) that would be needed to support a population of such creatures. try a search on site for as much info as u can shake a stick at....in fact I'll look for you and paste a link if I can find it


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[edit on 27-11-2004 by radiant_obsidian]

Originally posted by Byrd
Uh... define "frankensteinish", please?

But yes, there's been giant squids found alive. Blue whales feed on them, in fact. No megalodons were found alive; they died off quite some time ago.

Blue whales do not feed on giant squid. Sperm whales feed on them.

Here are some basic facts about the giant squid, you may already know all this, but I thought Id post it for everyone anyways

Giant squid are carnivorous mollusks that have a long, torpedo shaped body. At one end, surrounding a beak-like mouth strong enough to cut through steel cable, are five pairs of arms. One pair, thinner and longer than the rest, are used to catch food and bring it to the mouth. Just past the mouth are the eyes. Eyes that are the largest in the animal kingdom, getting as big as eighteen inches across.

All squid move through the ocean using a jet of water forced out of the body by a siphon. They eat fish, other squid, and perhaps some argue, in the case of the largest species, whales. The legend of the Kraken, a many armed sea monster that could pull a whole ship under, may have been based on the giant squid.

The largest giant squid ever measured was discovered at Timble Tickle on November 2, 1878. Three fisherman were working not far off shore when they noticed a mass floating on the ocean they took to be wreckage. They investigated and found a giant squid had run aground. Using their anchor as a grappling hook they snagged the still living body and made it fast to a tree. When the tide went out the creature was left high and dry. When the animal died, the fishermen measured it and then chopped it up for dog meat. The body of the squid was twenty feet from tail to beak. The longer tentacles measured thirty five feet and were tipped with four inch suckers.

We know the giant squid tangles with whales from eye-witness accounts. In October 1966, two lighthouse keepers at Danger Point, South Africa, observed a baby southern right whale under attack from a giant squid. For an hour and a half the monster clung to the whale trying to drown it as the whale's mother watched helplessly. "The little whale could stay down for 10 to 12 minutes, then come up. It would just have enough time to spout - only two or three seconds - and then down again." The squid finally won and the baby whale was never seen again.

Giant Squid have been seen in battle with adult whales too. In 1965, a Soviet whaler watched a battle between a squid and a 40 ton sperm whale. In this case neither were victorious. The strangled whale was found floating in the sea with the squid's tentacles wrapped around the whale's throat. The squid's severed head was found in the whale's stomach.

Sperm whales eat squid and originally it had been thought that such battles were the result of a sperm whale taking on a squid that was just too large to be an easy meal. The incident with the Brunswick might suggest otherwise.

The Brunswick was a 15,000 ton auxiliary tanker owned by the Royal Norwegian Navy. In the 1930's it was attacked at least three times by giant squid. In each case the attack was deliberate as the squid would pull along side of the ship, pace it, then suddenly turn, run into the ship and wrap it's tentacles around the hull. The encounters were fatal for the squid. Since the animal was unable to get a good grip on the ship's steel surface, the animals slid off and fell into the ship's propellers.

Unfortunately for scientists, but good for the rest of us, humans do not meet up with giant squids very often. (There is at least one report from World War II of survivors of a sunken ship being attacked by a giant squid that ate one of the party) Squids are thought to be deep dwelling, open sea creatures. Work by Dr. Ole Brix, of the University of Bergen, indicates the blood of squids does not carry oxygen very well at higher temperatures. A squid might actually suffocate in warm water.

According to Dr. Malcom Clarke, of the Marine Biological Association , temperature also seems to affect the squid's buoyancy mechanism. Warm water will cause a giant squid to rise to the surface and not be able to get back down. With water temperature even higher at the surface, the squid maybe doomed. It is not surprising then, that most squid groundings occur near where two ocean streams, one cold and one warm, meet. Perhaps the squid found himself suddenly in water too warm for him.

How big can a squid get? Estimates based on peices of carcasses found in the belly's of sperm whales range up to one hundred feet. One unconfirmed story, though, suggests they might get even larger. One night during World War II a British Admiralty trawler was lying off the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. One of the crew, A. G. Starkey, was up on deck, alone, fishing, when he saw something in the water:

"As I gazed, fascinated, a circle of green light glowed in my area of illumination. This green unwinking orb I suddenly realized was an eye. The surface of the water undulated with some strange disturbance. Gradually I realized that I was gazing at almost point-black range at a huge squid." Starkey walked the length the of the ship finding the tail at one end and the tentacles at the other. The ship was over one hundred and seventy five feet long.

here is a link to some great pictorial info from a giant squid exhibition in the US
seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov...


Awesome story from the BBC website I found with pics of a new type of squid from the squid family, which according to the =scientific stucy of the specimens caught, may be even larger, and a more verocious predator than the giant squid itself. This is a must see for all squid fans out there

"Now we can say that it attains a size larger than the giant squid. Giant squid is no longer the largest squid that's out there. We've got something that's even larger, and not just larger but an order of magnitude meaner."

news.bbc.co.uk...

As a side not, I wonder if global warming and the rise in sea temperatures would have a lasting effect on squid such as these, I really hope not.

Im sorry I cant be more helpful with your search for the Megladon, but all my searches turn up are site selling Meg teeth, I just got a little sickened when I saw all these and gave up pretty quick

Heres a better page with know scientific data and facts about the new "larger than giant-squid", squid species, real name Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni
tolweb.org...
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