RIGHT!?

Megalomania

"Megalomania - a psycho-pathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of power, relevance, or omnipotence. 'Megalomania is characterized by an inflated sense of self-esteem and overestimation by persons of their powers and beliefs."

Hmmm... So if we call us megalomaniacs... Are we narcissistic??

Your tap-water

Did you know that...

Your tap-water may be the water that megalodon once swum in. Intriguing, eh?

Meet Sue

Sue Hendrickson, amateur paleontologist, discovered the most complete (approximately 85%) and, until 2001, the largest, Tyrannosaurus fossil skeleton known in South Dakota, on 12 August 1990. From 1998 to 1999 Field Museum of Natural History preparators spent over 25,000 man-hours taking the rock off each of the bones. 
The mounted skeleton opened to the public on May 17, 2000 in the great hall at the Field Museum of Natural History. A study of this specimen's fossilized bones showed that "Sue" reached full size at age 19 and died at age 28, the longest any tyrannosaur is known to have lived. Early speculation that Sue may have died from a bite to the back of the head was not confirmed. Though subsequent study showed many pathologies in the skeleton, no bite marks were found. 
Damage to the back of the skull may have been caused by post-mortem trampling. Recent speculation indicates that "Sue" may have died of starvation after contracting a parasitic infection from eating diseased meat; the resulting infection would have caused inflammation in the throat, ultimately leading "Sue" to starve because she could no longer swallow food. This hypothesis is substantiated by smooth-edged holes in her skull which are similar to those caused in modern-day birds that contract the same parasite.


Have any of you already met Sue?

Fast Facts about Megalodon

• Megalodon is the biggest predatory marine creature in the history of the planet.
• Megalodon had the most powerful bite of any creature that ever lived.
• Megalodon fossils have been found all over the world. 
• No one knows why Megalodon went extinct. 

Xiphactinus

Nice to meet you mr Xiphactinus

Xiphactinus was one of the largest bony fish of the Late Cretaceous and is considered one of the fiercest creatures in the sea. A powerful tail and winglike pectoral fins shot the 17-foot-long (5-meter-long) monster through the surface waters of the ocean. Unlucky fish and unsuspecting seabirds were snared inside Xiphactinus's upturned jaw, which was lined with giant, fanglike teeth, giving it an expression akin to that of a bulldog.

Xiphactinus trolled an ancient ocean called the Western Interior Seaway, which covered much of central North America during the Cretaceous. Though long extinct, if alive today the bony fish would look like a giant, fanged tarpon.

Raptors VS T-rex

 

Part 1 and 2. Enjoy!

The Goblin shark

Nice to meet you mr Goblin shark!

The goblin shark is a deep-sea shark, the sole living species in the family Mitsukurinidae. It has a long, trowel-shaped, beak-like rostrum or snout, much longer than other sharks' snouts. Some other distinguishing characteristics of the shark are the color of its body, which is mostly pink, and its long, protrusible jaws. 

Mitsukurina owstoni is found in the deep ocean, far below where the sun's light can reach at depths greater than 200 m. They can be found throughout the world, from Australia in the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic Ocean. They are best known from the waters around Japan, where the species was first discovered.

Goblin sharks feed on a variety of organisms that live in deep waters. Among some of their known prey are deep-sea squid, crabs and deep-sea fish. Very little is known about the species' life history and reproductive habits, as encounters with them have been relatively rare. 

Preserved heads of two goblin sharks.

(Note: This species is not extinct!)

Megalodon Teeth

"Megalodon" actually means "Big tooth" and that's not surprising when seeing these pictures. A Tooth can measure up to about 7 inches. 

Titanoboa

Nice to meet you, mr Titanoboa.

Titanoboa is the largest snake known to man! It measures about 1 meter (3 ft) in diameter at the thickest part of the body. The boa lived approximately 10 years after the dinosaur extinction event and fed on crocodiles och giant turtels. Because snakes are ectothemic, the discovery implies that the tropics, the creature's habitat, must have been warmer than previously thought, averaging about 30°C (90°F). The warmer climate on the Earth allowed cold-blooded snakes to attain much larger sizes 
than modern snakes. 

• Length: 12-15 meters (40-50 feet)
• Weight: about 1,200 kg (2,500 lb)
• Lived: 58-60 million years ago in South America. 

This is a vertebra from a modern anaconda and a fossilised vertebra from a Titanoboa. Guess which one belongs to the titanoboa?

Shark attack 3: Megalodon

Hey guys!
We just watched a movie about Meg on youtube, called "Shark attack 3: Megalodon". It's not a great movie, but it's kind of funny and a little interesting. And since the entire film is on youtube, it's completely free of charge.

It's too bad that there isn't any high budget movies about Meg, guess we have to wait until she has the same status as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. By the way, that's a goal we decided on today, to make the Megalodon as famous as the Tyrannosaurus Rex. Who knows, maybe some day Steven Spielberg will make a movie about Meg too. Fingers crossed!

Here's the first clip and you will find the following parts linked next to it on the right.

Ps. Before you go out in a rage because of the incorrect size of the shark: spoilers, but it's a baby Megalodon ;)

Megalodon sightings

"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 (1.6 m) in diameter and frequently contained from two to three dozen good-sized crayfish each weighing several punds. 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 a 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 theshark was "three hundred feet (90 m) long at least"! Others said it was as long as the wharf on which we stood - about 115 feet (35 m)! 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. The local Fisheries Inspector of the time, Mr Paton, agreed with me that it must have been something really gigantic to put these experienced men into such a state of fear and panic."


This is a text written by David Stead who investigated a case of a few fishermen sighting what they claimed to be 35-90 meter long white fish. This was 1918 and this was the story that made a lot of people start to really question if the Megalodon is extinct. There are a lot of stories about people seeing huge sharks, but what makes this story believeable is that these fishermen quit there jobs because of that sighting, even though it hurt their economical situation. Boy, do we wish that we had been on that fishing-boat... 

Proudly Present

We proudly present readers from the following countries:
Sweden, USA, Greece, Brazil, France, Russia, Germany!

Thank you for taking your time on this blog and we're glad there is still people out there that care about the megalodon and its "friends"!
Greetings to you all!

The Great White

Check out this picture @xbuc showed us on twitter! Amazing, right? The Megalodon hunters wants to go diving in the Mariana trench, however, just spotting a Great White would be thrilling too! Despite this seeing a shark this big isn't enough! We want to go deeper!
Well, it's a great picture and we do envy the photographer a lot...

Did you know that some scientist say that the megalodon often disarmed it's prey before eating it, by biting of it's fins. A lot like this great white is doing with the seal in this remarkable picture. The difference is that, the great white is just playing with it's food, but trust me, the megalodon wasn't playing around... 

The Great White Shark is known to grow up to about 6 meters and live as long as 30 years!

Meg's Colour

Just thought of something: since we only have found teeth and fossiles we don't really know the colour of the megalodon. In animations it's always assumed that it has the same colours as the great white. But we don't really know that! What if it was all black? What do you think?

Megalodon VS Brygmophysete

Megalodon Lives!

Hey guys! Found some nice proof of Meggys existence, it awakened my hope again after a discussion with my father, who´s quite pessimistic. But I hope this brings up your hope to. Do you believe that Meg is still down there? Leave a comment! :)

"Extinctness" is not definitive

The Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) was thought to be extinct for more than 60 million years until a live specimen was captured in 1938. We now know that there is a small but definitely surviving population of these ancient fish in very deep waters off eastern Africa and another was recently discovered off Indonesia. Who's to say that Megalodon does not also survive?

Unexplored water
Less than 5% of the deep-sea has been explored, and even less than that sampled biologically. Yet we know that sharks live at least as deep as 12,000 feet (3,660 metres) and Sperm Whales (Physeter macrocephalus) are believed to dive to 10,000 feet (3,050 metres) in search of squid. If there's enough food down there for 60-foot (18-metre) whales, there is probably enough to support Megalodon

Deep down there's a home
Based on the average rate of deposition of manganese dioxide around nuclei composed of fossil shark teeth, some have calculated that Megalodon may have lived as recently as 11,000 years ago, rather than died out 1.6 million years ago, as suggested by radiometric dating. In geological terms, that's yesterday.

New discoveries
New and unprecedented marine creatures are still being discovered, some of them quite large - like the 15-foot (4.5-metre) Megamouth Shark (Megachasma pelagios) discovered in November 1976.

Eye witnesses
There have been numerous, consistent reports by credible witnesses of gigantic sharks - like the 100+-foot (30+-metre) ghostly whitish shark reported from Broughton Island, Australia, in 1918, which was seen by several experienced commercial crayfishermen.

Mysteriously lost fishing device
A living Megalodon would likely be very heavy, powerful, and difficult to capture (either by accident or design) using conventional fishing gear. Thousands of nets, longlines, and harpoons are lost every year.

How many types of dinosaurs are known?

Over 800 confirmed and over 2000 un-confirmed. The difference between the two is that "confirmed" means that there were full body fossils found, and "un-confirmed" means that only partial body parts were found.

Repenomanus Robustus

Nice to meet you, mr Repenomanuss robustus

Repenomanuss robustus was a cat-size, weasel-like mammal with large pointy teeth and powerful jaws, that fed on small dinosaurs. One 130-million-year-old fossil specimen was found with the remains of a small beaked dinosaur called Psittacosaurus in it's stomach. The dinosaur was a juvenile. The remains suggest it was wolfed down in chunks rather than chewed. It's not know whether Repenomanus robustus  hunted the dinosaur or scavenged it, but it had strong legs and sharp teeth and could have easily been a hunter. 

Did you know?

(We apologize for any lisping)

Megalodon Jaws

Many reconstructions has been done of the megalodon jaw. The first attempt was made by Professor Bashford Dean in 1909.  But in 1991, two shark experts, Richard Ellis and John E. McCosker, pointed out flaws in previous methods. The following are some of the versions of the famous jaw. 

  Apparently this is the biggest megalodon jaw in the world, however it's not very realistic.

 This jaw, we've seen in real life in San Fransisco not long ago. It's a quite good size.

 So is this

 These two pictures (in black and white) showing the first reconstruction, from 1909, is made of real megalodon teeth, which we think is quite a waste, since the jaw doesn't match the reality. It's rather big. The dude sitting all by himself is professor Dean.

Quetzalcoatlus

Nice to meet you mr Quetzalcoatluz!


The first Quetzalcoatlus fossils were discovered in Texas, 1971, by  Douglas A. Lawson. It is the largest flying animal of all times. There have been a number of different ideas proposed about the lifestyle of Quetzalcoatluz. But still, nobody is truely sure how this remarkable creature actually fed or flew. The latest teories suggests that the quetzalcoatluz caught its' prey similar to storks.

• Family: Azhdarchidae
• Lived in: North America, 78 - 65,5 million years ago
• Wingspan: up to 15,5 meters (50,85 feet)

Presentation

Welcome to Megalodon Hunters!

Join our journey to the deepest part of the sea. Some of you have already followed us on twitter and facebook, but here's the real deal!

On this blog we're going to discuss the prehistoric animals that have walked this earth before us (maybe even some of the beasts living today). We're going to present new animals and cool facts every week.

The following are our categories:

Jurassic Fight Club - Our little fight corner, filmclips presenting prehistoric beasts fighting

Nice to meet you Mr… - New animals

Everyday-lodons - Things in our life that reminds us of the megalodon and so on.

Films - Interesting clips from the internet

Megalodon Facts - Pretty obvious...

Fast Facts

Q & A - If you're wondering about something, just ask, and we will answer it in this category.

Pictures
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Twitter:  @megalodonhuntrs

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Megalodon-Hunters/136933079742068

Mega-Construction!

Under Construction! 
We'll be realising our project 27 october!

Be there or be square!