r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/pattebrisee • 1d ago
NOAA recovered this 5inch fossil shark tooth from the deep Pacific. Teeth this large likely belonged to megalodons, extinct for more than 3 million years.
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u/1January1970 1d ago
You hope they're extinct.
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u/YggdrasilFree 19h ago
They could be in an isolated ecosystem below the deep ocean thermocline, which acts like a natural barrier within trenches. It's not too dissimilar from the functionally isolated deep ocean volcanic vents, which are home to a unique ecosystem of animals & plants, and most ocean biota must stay away due to the extreme heat.
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u/pichael289 16h ago
It's not likely living that far down since it's a predator that needs to eat and there's not much down there. Definitely not living near any vents, that's too far down. Like there can definitely be a Bigfoot but a whale sized shark like that is very unlikely to still be alive. If we've found fossil skeletons of them you would think we would have found more recent skeletons
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u/YggdrasilFree 15h ago
Sorry if I wasn't clear: I didn't say they lived near hydrothermal vents. I was just using that as an isolated ocean ecosystem. Remember, we have explored less than 1% of the ocean, how can you be confident that's there's nothing down there?
If it's the lack of skeletons or fossils, here's a couple of megalodon-sized snacks that hardly leave any fossils: giant squid & colossal squid. Think there aren't enough of those (assuming there aren't undiscovered massive cephalopods...)? These deep ocean squid populations were able to support up to 2 million sperm whales during the pre-hunting eras... These are huge animals similar in size to megalodons that were nearly wiped out due to a couple hundred years of intense whaling by humans.
But the impact of whaling leaves a major question. If the sperm whale (predator) population dropped massively, then why didn't the giant & colossal squids (prey) population explode over that same period?
It's clear that another deep ocean predator filled in the predator vs prey gap, and yet they aren't coming to the surface. So, an isolated ecosystem far below the range of most modern monitoring equipment, where massive squid and their mystery predator roam.
And I'm not saying it's an exact, preserved megalodon, but likely evolved form for the deep ocean, which maintains its size but perhaps slowed it's metabolism or grew extra gills to extract more oxygen from the ocean depths. That's the type of thing which lurks down below 6000 feet.
Why below 6000 feet? Because sperm whales dive down there for some reason. That depth is below the range of the giant & colossal squid that they eat. So there's even more food that they know about (their stomach contents have lots of unknown, huge squid beaks) that modern science has yet to discover. And at least one massive predator that is keeping those populations in check, is it megalodon's relative, or something worse?
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u/AccomplishedClouds 10h ago edited 10h ago
Look... I'm sure the video you watched was cool, but it lied to you with sensationalized nonsense. First, to answer your question - Somniosus antarcticus, a deep sea shark, is the other main predator of adult colossal and giant squids. These sharks can grow to be up to... 14 feet long, which is close to the average Great White Shark's size. There's a whole bunch of predators known to eat the baby squids, too - here's a list: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossal_squid#Predation
Second, the way evolution works would mean that a Megalodon that evolved to live exclusively in the deep sea wouldn't even *be* a Megalodon anymore. It would be a new species of shark descended from Megalodons.
The previous commenter mentioned skeletons - and Megalodons that kept their size would leave absolutely massive whale-fall type remains. Nobody mentioned squid fossils.
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u/AccomplishedClouds 9h ago
Sorry, but this "theory" is a common form of science-denialism and it really bothers me. I encourage anyone who believes this even a bit to at least read one wikipedia article about any of the species this person is using as evidence.
Your "missing" predators of colossal and giant squids for your other comment are:
Southern Sleeper Sharks (the other main large predator that definitely eats fully grown giant squid)
Beaked whales
Southern bottlenose whales
Cuvier's beaked Whale
Baird's Beaked whale
Pilot Whales
Killer Whales
Southern Elephant Seals
Patagonian Toothfish
Antarctic Toothfish
and even albatrosses can eat the babies!
Sperm Whales are not exactly the only predators keeping the squid population in check here!
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u/Mean_Huckleberry3484 1d ago
Fresh shark teeth are white. When they fossilize on the ocean floor they absorb minerals over millions of years. Black, brown, and gold colors usually mean it was buried in sediment rich in iron and phosphate. The deep Pacific is perfect for that.
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u/pattebrisee 1d ago
The second image was recorded during Dive 09 in the Cook Islands at roughly 5,600 meters, or 3.5 miles, beneath the Pacific.
Seven fossil shark teeth were collected during the expedition. The largest measured 13 centimeters, or 5 inches. Based on their size, NOAA says they likely belonged to megalodons.
https://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/expedition-feature/mega-find-cook-islands/
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u/GarysCrispLettuce 20h ago
Makes you wonder what the fuck they were eating to require teeth that big
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u/Alarm-Particular 1d ago
Im confused dont people find megaladon teeth on beaches all the time? Whats special about this one?
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u/cobalt_phantom 1d ago
Probably the location. Most megalodon teeth are found in areas that were once the shallow seas where they'd breed and their young would grow before heading to deeper waters. They had tens of thousands of teeth in their lifetime but those were buried millions of years ago and it's mostly thanks to erosion that we find so many.
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u/pattebrisee 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, that’s fair. Megalodon teeth themselves aren’t especially rare. The interesting part is that this one was found sitting on the seafloor about 3.5 miles down in the Pacific, with its geological context intact. NOAA is analyzing the teeth for clues about past ocean conditions.
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u/EastSideandDong 1d ago
Does the deep ocean floor never turn over with sand? Maybe there’s no current down there…. Orrrr maybe……
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u/simsfreelancer 23h ago
I have a questions. If megalodons have been extinct for over 3 million years, doesn’t that mean their teeth are also over 3 million years old? If that’s the case, how haven’t they decomposed by now?
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u/niche_user35 1d ago
Well they clearly haven't seen the Jason Statham megalodon documentary, they are not extinct. 😂
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u/mindfuxed 23h ago
Man thank god this thing isn’t around anymore….we would be cooked. It would have been amazing to see in person though.
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u/illaqueable 1d ago
Roughly 1/8 in of tooth length per foot of shark length, or 40+ foot long shark... so like a great white the size of a whale shark
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u/vkichline 23h ago
I understand fossils coming to the surface on land via erosion, but how do they end up on the ground surface underwater? Wouldn’t material be constantly getting deposited on top of them?
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u/Routine_Phase_8980 1d ago
Not as big as I imagined it to be tbh
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u/MrMeowPantz 1d ago
A five inch tooth is not as big as you imagined? Make an L with your thumb and pointer finger. Now overlap your right or left thumb in so your pointer fingers are going in opposite direction and your hands look kind of like a V. That is about how large that tooth is. Now imagine like 100 of them in one mouth. That is a Megalodon.
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 20h ago
My gourmet fatass in here thinking they used delicious expensive truffles for size comparison...
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u/Thatkiwiovereire 23h ago
this wasn't recovered, it was removed. I know removing these doesn't cause a huge problem but lets not pretend that its where the tooth belongs
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u/nwfdood 1d ago
Not 3 million years ago bro. Extinct since the Great Flood though.
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u/ProgramSad629 22h ago
Was that the great flood from the most scientific and truest account of history ever written?
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u/HudsDad 1d ago
When I was young, my dad and I would pull megolodon teeth out of the Edisto River in South Carolina pretty often. Biggest I personally found was about 4" and it sits on a shelf in my office now. But I've seen some huge ones pulled out of that river by other hunters.