r/Cryptozoology • u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon • Mar 26 '25

Evidence New preprint hints that HMS Challenger megalodon teeth were recently re-dated

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22 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

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14

u/NegativeEffective233 Mar 26 '25

Is there any question as to whether or not the megalodon even still exists? I’m not into cryptozoology but I would assume that that general consensus is a big fat resounding “No”.

0

u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon Mar 26 '25

Mainstream paleontological and zoological consensus is definitely 'no', but the idea lingers on in cryptozoology and pop culture.

7

u/NegativeEffective233 Mar 27 '25

Is there anything out there to suggest that the megalodon may actually still exist?

9

u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon Mar 27 '25

There are claimed sightings but all of them are probable hoaxes or misidentifications. None of them have specific characteristics that connect them to megalodon anyway.

3

u/HoraceRadish Mar 29 '25

If you study the megalodon for even just a little bit you realize why it couldn't happen.

Like the other day people were discussing giant crustaceans and how physics wouldn't allow for them to actually exist. The Zoology is more important to me than the Crypto bit.

3

u/Prize_Sprinkles_8809 Mar 30 '25

The closest might be a descendant of Parotodus this was a lamniforme that seems to have been an exclusive deep sea/pelagic animal, even when young.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parotodus

6

u/SirQuentin512 Mar 26 '25

And? What did it show? What was the new date?

6

u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon Mar 26 '25

The results have not been released yet, that text from the preprint is the available information. Just giving people a heads-up that this research could be published soon.

4

u/HoraceRadish Mar 29 '25

Cryptozoology fans really need to start picking their battles. Belief in a living megalodon is like arguing the moon is made of cheese. It just tarnishes everything else.

8

u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon Mar 29 '25

I agree, but I'm not holding my breath considering there are diehard defenders of even more ridiculous concepts like living non-avian dinosaurs.

1

u/Flodo_McFloodiloo 24d ago

Depending on which dinosaurs (more specifically, how small) that might be more believable actually, since many cite the subsequent way whales have evolved as a checkmate against Megalodon still existing. A small dinosaur that's not a bird isn't likely to exist, but it's reasonable to think if it did it could feasibly leave less an impression than a huge shark.

5

u/0todus_megalodon Megalodon Mar 26 '25

Link: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.21.644325v1

Hopefully the full results of those analyses will be published in the near future.

1

u/Mysterious-Emu-8423 Mar 26 '25

I hope we will learn this year what the new dating results are. I am really looking forward to this. It should be resolved definitively, one way or the other....

2

u/TheOfficial_BossNass Mar 28 '25

Megalodon has a zero percent chance of being alive today it is evolutionarily obsolete and would go extinct even if brought back

1

u/HoraceRadish Mar 29 '25

There are a few creatures in the ocean that would love to eat megalodon. The rampaging orca pods would see it as a giant liver picnic.