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triplesod Great Old One Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Total posts: 116 Location: The Peoples Republik of Mancunia Age: 35 Gender: Male |
 Posted: 24-01-2007 20:12 Post subject: Prehistoric shark found |
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I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet. I hope it doesn't turn out to be a fake.
There is a video and a CGI picture on the page, I can't tell you owt about the vid though as my PC won't play it.
http://cbs3.com/topstories/local_story_024085850.html
Rare Prehistoric Shark Found In Japan
(AP) TOKYO The staff of a Japanese aquarium took pictures of a rare frilled shark on Sunday, after it was discovered by local residents at Awashima Port in Shizuoka, southwest of Tokyo.
This prehistoric shark is rarely seen alive as its natural habitat lies up to 1,280 metres (4,200 feet) deep under the sea.
Experts at the Awashima Marine Park were able to examine the creature, which was a female, and film it swimming around.
Unfortunately though it died a couple of hours after it was moved to its new environment.
The eel-looking shark, with its mouth full of 300 trident-shaped teeth, measured 5.3 feet-long and weighed 16.5 pounds.
Frilled sharks normally inhabit deep sea waters between 400 and 4,200 feet and rarely come to the surface.
However they have been seen near the coast of Japan before, especially during the winter time when the water temperature drops and they have to get to warmer areas to feed.
Frilled sharks can grow to a length of nearly 6.5 feet and eat deep-sea squids and other soft-bodied preys.
Most specimen are found in the Japanese waters.
(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ) |
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| licata1708 Headmaster at the Sly-Lemkoff Picnic
Great Old One Joined: 14 Sep 2006 Total posts: 120 Location: Brooklyn, New York Age: 39 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 24-01-2007 21:44 Post subject: |
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That is quite an interesting looking animal.
Given it's rarity, and the track record for moved animals dying in their new homes, I wish we would stop messing with them. |
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| triplesod Great Old One Joined: 01 Oct 2004 Total posts: 116 Location: The Peoples Republik of Mancunia Age: 35 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-01-2007 22:11 Post subject: |
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Yeah, it's sad but it is Human nature unfortunately.
Especially if money is involved. Say some hick from Aberdeen Washington comes across a Sasquatch while out hunting deer (hunting deer? As if that isn't bad enough already!). He won't care about science or biology, he will be more interested in the doller signs flashing in front of his eyes.  |
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| monops Great Old One Joined: 07 Nov 2006 Total posts: 149 Location: Cambridge, UK Age: 51 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 24-01-2007 23:53 Post subject: |
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| licata1708 wrote: | That is quite an interesting looking animal.
Given it's rarity, and the track record for moved animals dying in their new homes, I wish we would stop messing with them. |
Amen to that...but I think we're hoping, sadly. Pity they couldn't have examined it, taken some pictures and let it go.
EDIT - thanks for the link, BTW - the video works fine! |
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| Philo_T But, this one goes to 11! Joined: 10 Jun 2002 Total posts: 1339 Location: slaving away in the bit mines Age: 47 Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 25-01-2007 04:08 Post subject: |
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| licata1708 wrote: | That is quite an interesting looking animal.
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You're being charitable.
I wouldn't eat that thing if I was starving. On a dare. |
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| feen5 Don't tread on any mines Joined: 09 Feb 2004 Total posts: 1581 Age: 40 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-01-2007 10:50 Post subject: |
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| I don't think if they let it go it was going to survive, generally when creatures come up from such depths (be it in nets or under their own power) they die very soon afterwards. |
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| theyithian Keeping the British end up
Joined: 29 Oct 2002 Total posts: 11704 Location: Vermilion Sands Gender: Unknown |
| Posted: 25-01-2007 14:00 Post subject: |
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| It's bloody amazing. It looks like it swam straight out of the past. Utterly fascinating. I have a pet fascination with creatures that haven't troubled to evolve much lately - it bespeaks a kind of Darwinistic arrogance that i admire... |
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| gncxx King-Size Canary
Great Old One Joined: 25 Aug 2001 Total posts: 13561 Location: Eh? Gender: Male |
| Posted: 25-01-2007 19:00 Post subject: |
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| If it was bigger it could be a Nessie... |
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| ramonmercado Psycho Punk
Joined: 19 Aug 2003 Total posts: 17931 Location: Dublin Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-11-2012 15:29 Post subject: |
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Images at link.
| Quote: | Great whites 'not evolved from megashark'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20318175
By Nick Crumpton
Science reporter
The new specimen (examined here by Dana Ehret) links Great Whites to the much smaller mako shark
Related Stories
Tiny sharks provide glowing clue
Human clues to our fish ancestry
Ancient shark had colossal bite
A new fossil discovery has helped quell 150 years of debate over the origin of great white sharks.
Carcharodon hubbelli, which has been described by US scientists, shows intermediate features between the present-day predators and smaller, prehistoric mako sharks.
The find supports the theory that great white sharks did not evolve from huge megatooth sharks.
The research is published this week in the journal Palaeontology.
Palaeontologists have previously disagreed over the ancestry of the modern white sharks, with some claiming that they are descended from the giant megatooth sharks, such as Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon).
"When the early palaeontologists put together dentitions of Megalodon and the other megatooth species, they used the modern white shark to put them together, so of course it's going to look like a white shark because that's what was used as a model," explained Professor Dana Ehret of Monmouth University in New Jersey who lead the new research.
Modern day white sharks show similarities in the structure of their teeth with the extinct megatooth sharks.
As they both sport serrations on the cutting edges, early scientists working on the animals used this as evidence for the sharks being closely related.
"But we actually see the evolution of serrations occurring many times in different lineages of sharks and if you look at the shape and size of the serrations in the two groups you see that they are actually very different from each other," Professor Ehret told BBC News.
Megalodon had one of the most formidable bites known from the fossil record
"White sharks have very large, coarse serrations whereas megalodon had very fine serrations."
Now, additional evidence from the newly described species shows both white shark-like teeth shape as well other features characteristic of broad-toothed mako sharks that feed on smaller fish rather than primarily seals and other large mammals.
"It looks like a gradation or a transition from broad-toothed makos to the modern white shark. It's a transitional species, and you don't see that a whole lot in the fossil record," Professor Ehret said.
The mako-like characteristics of the new species, named Carcharodon hubbelli in honour of Gordon Hubbell - the researcher who discovered it in the field - were only found due to the incredible preservation of the fossil.
Continue reading the main story
Palaeontology in Peru
The Pisco formation is in South Western Peru, along the Pacific Ocean, a five mile drive from Lima on the transcontinental highway.
A very low energy environment with high depositional rates led to a large number of spectacularly well preserved finds from the area.
These have included whale skeletons complete with preserved baleen and preserved feathers on giant penguin fossils.
The formation has also preserved a shallow marine environment and fossils such as specialised marine sloths that swam in the ocean to feed on sea grasses, and the giant sperm whale relative Leviathan melvillei.
Ehret and his colleagues were able to discover the original excavation site due to the site being protected by the high salt content of the sediment, preserving the hole.
"A big issue in shark palaeontology is that we tend to only have isolated teeth, and even when you find associated teeth very, very rarely are they articulated in a life position," continued Professor Ehret.
"The nice thing about this new species is that we have an articulated set of jaws which almost never happens and we could see that the third anterior tooth is curved out, just like in the tooth row of mako sharks today," he said.
David Ward, an associate researcher at the Natural History Museum, London, who was not involved in the study told BBC News: "Everyone working in the field will be absolutely delighted to see this relationship formalised."
The mosaic of both white shark-like and mako-like characters had been spotted by the researchers in an initial description of the fossil, but the age of the fossil meant their conclusion that the species was intermediate between a mako ancestor and modern white sharks wasn't fully accepted.
"Some folks said 'well, it makes a great story, but it's not old enough because by this time, the early Pliocene, we see full blown white sharks in the ocean.'"
This led Ehret and his team to revisit the original site the fossil was taken from the Pisco Formation in Peru to re-examine the geology of the area, guided by the original field notes of Gordon Hubbell.
Continue reading the main story
Megatooth vs Mako
There are only two species of mako shark today: the short- and long-finned mako sharks.
They are smaller than white sharks and eat primarily fish rather then mammals, whereas white sharks shift away from eating fish as they grow.
The long-finned mako shark gives birth to live pups.
Megalodon was the largest of the 'megatooth' sharks reaching lengths of 15-20m.
A 2008 study found that its bite was one of the most formidable ever to have evolved.
Shark teeth are usually found isolated because they are continually replaced in a conveyor-belt-like fashion.
"Gordon gave us two photographs from when he actually collected the specimen and then a hand drawn map with a little 'X' on it. We tried to use the map and we didn't have much luck.
"But using the two pictures of the excavation, my colleague Tom Devries was able to use the mountains in the background."
"We literally walked through the desert holding the pictures up, trying to compare them. That's how we found the site."
Not only did they find the site, but the team were able to discover the precise hole from which the fossil had been excavated in 1988, before making a lucky escape from the desert.
"We made it back to Lima with about three hours to spare before an earthquake hit and shut down the transcontinental highway for two weeks. It was quite a trip."
By analysing the species of molluscs found fossilised at the site, the team found that the shark was actually two million years older than had been thought, making it roughly 6.5 million years old.
"That two million year push-back is pretty significant because in the evolutionary history of white sharks, that puts the species in a more appropriate time category to be ancestral or... an intermediate form of white shark."
"We've bolstered the case that white sharks are just highly modified makos... It fits the story now," Professor Ehret told BBC News. |
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| ChrisBoardman Great Old One Joined: 17 May 2011 Total posts: 539 Location: Alton, Hampshire Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-11-2012 16:22 Post subject: |
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Just think how good the film Jaws would have been if it was a Megalodon.
"We're gonna need a very much bigger boat" |
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| George_millett Great Old One Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Total posts: 118 |
| Posted: 14-11-2012 16:47 Post subject: |
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Whilst it isn't a film there is this that does bring Megalodon into a modern world.
IIRC there is an incident with an early submarine that does not end well for the machine. |
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| oldrover Great Old One Joined: 18 Oct 2009 Total posts: 2146 Location: Wales Gender: Male |
| Posted: 14-11-2012 19:06 Post subject: |
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I'm really sorry to be the one who tells you this but someone actually has made a film of this.
| Quote: | | IIRC there is an incident with an early submarine that does not end well for the machine. |
No, there's a very few supposed Megaladon sightings non of which involve a submarine. |
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| lordmongrove Great Old One Joined: 30 May 2009 Total posts: 865 Location: Exeter Age: 43 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 17-11-2012 02:53 Post subject: |
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| There is no evidence of modern megaladon survival. Most of the supposed sightings are clearly describing whale sharks. |
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| George_millett Great Old One Joined: 28 Nov 2005 Total posts: 118 |
| Posted: 19-11-2012 13:27 Post subject: |
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| oldrover wrote: | I'm really sorry to be the one who tells you this but someone actually has made a film of this.
| Quote: | | IIRC there is an incident with an early submarine that does not end well for the machine. |
No, there's a very few supposed Megaladon sightings non of which involve a submarine. |
I think you may have misunderstood me. We were essentially answering the same question. I was unaware of the film but have read this work of fiction that does include an attack on a submarine of some kind. |
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| ChrisBoardman Great Old One Joined: 17 May 2011 Total posts: 539 Location: Alton, Hampshire Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-11-2012 13:46 Post subject: |
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I've just found out there is a film called "shark attack 3: megalodon"
has anyone seen it? |
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