Live 50-foot megalodon shark in Bahamas!?

The megalodon, six times the size of a great white shark, was supposedly the unchallenged apex predator of the seas in prehistoric times. Here is a drawing to scale with a great white and human for perspective:

Well, diving in the Bahamas, I snapped this photo (I know it looks Photoshopped, but this is a real photo - the only thing done was some cropping around the edges and white balance adjustment):

Notice how this photo captured the monster just as it was about to chomp down on the diver (who is being swept off her feet)?!

Well, here's the "rest" of the story...

Fortunately, the diver (our own Julie Edwards, as I recall) was not really eaten, or even harmed, since she was actually about 20 feet behind the shark - a 14-foot tiger shark - in the foreground (actually right in front of me...and my wide angle lens). The timing just happened to EXACTLY make the top half of the shark's mouth cover the diver's body and the lower lip look like it was behind her! Honestly, I couldn't have timed it perfectly enough to create this optical illusion if I had tried!!!

Wow! Right place, right time, and a lot of skill! Nicely done.

Wow! Right place, right time, and a lot of skill! Nicely done.

I'm not claiming skill in this case, Pat! It was pure luck that I snapped the picture at that moment!

Thanks for that pic Bruce!

I remember that moment well, in fact I'm still walking with a slight limp as a result...

j/k...of course

The thing about the megalodon is that all the guesses about its size are based purely on its teeth. The size is simply an extrapolation of the GWS teeth to body size ratio. It is possible that the megalodon just had big teeth and was only a couple of times bigger than the GWS.

Cool picture, though, Bruce.

Alex

The thing about the megalodon is that all the guesses about its size are based purely on its teeth. The size is simply an extrapolation of the GWS teeth to body size ratio. It is possible that the megalodon just had big teeth and was only a couple of times bigger than the GWS.

 

Cool picture, though, Bruce.

 

Alex

Maybe it had lots of tiny teeth and it was 10 times the size of the current extrapolation

It makes for a better movie.

Why to destroy a great image with words/

Great catch.

The megalodon, six times the size of a great white shark, was supposedly the unchallenged apex predator of the seas in prehistoric times. Here is a drawing to scale with a great white and human for perspective:

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Great job on that one, perfect timing and the perfect angle.

But since the coelacanth was once considered extinct, you may want to edit this post and say you actually found a real megalodon. I won't tell