The Truth Behind the "Truth" Behind Megalodon

Today, the great white shark rules the seas and haunts our imaginations.  After the release of the 1975 movie "Jaws," the great white shark and other sharks were feared and loathed more than they already were, although much of this fear was unbiased.  Ever since Jaws, hundreds of books, movies, television programs, and more have all capitalized on the shark craze, producing everything from the fantastic Steve Irwin Crocodile Hunter specials to the recent TV movie Sharknado.  One of the most popular shark-related features in the media is Discovery Channels "Shark Week," an annual event that features a week of shark-related programs.  Although many of these programs, as is to be expected for television programs nowadays, push the limits of reality, I think that the premiere of this year's Shark Week went too far, and I'm not the only one who thinks that, either.

First off, let's meet the star of this program: megalodon.  Estimates of the size of megalodon have varied widely and wildly, with some older estimates as high as about 100 feet long.  Today, however, most scientists agree that the largest megalodon could grow to around 60 feet long.  Which is still pretty massive, given that most great white sharks don't exceed lengths of around 20 feet, and look at how much people are afraid of them!  megalodon would have easily been able to swallow the average human in one bite: just take a look at those reconstructed jaws, below!  Also, below that picture, make sure to check out the size of just one megalodon tooth.  Suffice it to say, this shark was one massive bruiser.  This shark WAS one massive bruiser.  Notice how I emphasized the "was?"  Well, that's because megalodon went extinct about two million years ago.

Pyg encounters a mid-sized megalodon tooth, graciously donated to my collection of fossils and things that I take to local schools by local paleontologist Wayne Itano

Megalodon sounds pretty awesome, right?  I mean, to be honest, it's one of those extinct animals that just doesn't need to be "sci-fied up," because it's already cool enough as is, on par with other animals such as Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Utahraptor.  Well, just because it didn't NEED to be sci-fied up doesn't mean that television networks didn't do it anyways.  And this years Shark Week premiere was the culprit.  Discovery Channel aired a two hour "documentary" showing "biologists" on the hunt for a megalodon.  Today.  In the present.

One of those extinct animals that just doesn't need to be "Hollywoodized!"  Meet Stan, the resident Tyrannosaurus rex at the Morrison Natural History Museum!  You can see Pig seated in the bottom jaw for scale!  Yeah, this guy was huge.

We have no evidence to indicate that megalodon is alive and with us today, and the "evidence" included in the "documentary" was very clearly doctored.  For example, below is a picture of a whale that has supposedly been bitten in half by a megalodon:

And here is a photo "uncovered from Nazi archives" of a giant shark fin surfacing behind a pair of U-Boats:

The first picture just screams CG.  And the second one....really?  Nazi's? Very Indiana Jones-esque.  OK then, Discovery.

The "documentary" starts off with "found footage" of a "boat capsizing off the coast of South Africa and several people being eaten, but whose bodies were never recovered."  Already, this reeks of a typical television plot.  Especially given the fact that a quick Google search of this supposed incident, as well as any of the "biologists" in the "documentary," yields diddly-squat.  Apparently the prospect of a giant shark brutally attacking and destroying a fishing boat just wasn't exciting enough to make it to the news, despite the fact that every news story relating to sharks and shark attacks spreads like wildfire.  Perhaps the South African press was just busy that day?

People refute our naysaying by pointing out that "we know more about the surface of the moon than the ocean," and "the coelacanth (which you can learn more about by clicking HERE) and the giant squid were only discovered recently!"  Yeah, that's true.  But megalodon is very different from a giant cephalopod or a five or six foot long fish.  We are talking about an active, 60 foot long predator that's feeding on much, much bigger prey than the giant squid or coelacanth would.  The giant squid and coelacanth eat a lot of fish, and are considered to be primarily piscivorous.  The giant squid, although very large, is by no means at the top of its food chain, and is fed upon by the largest of the toothed whales, the 60 to 70 foot long sperm whale.  And two million years ago, megalodon would have made up the final link in this food chain, feeding on the 60 to 70 foot long sperm whale.

Am I saying that there is no possibility that more giant animals exist in the deepest depths of the ocean, just waiting to be discovered?  No, I most definitely am not.  I do, however, encourage you to consider the ecological resources that would be needed by such a massive animal.  With no evidence of mutilated whale carcasses that could be attributed to such a massive animal, and an equal amount of evidence from first-hand accounts....I think that the conclusion should speak for itself.

The biggest issue that I have with all of this is not that a television program was made that packages myths, untruths, and exaggerations: it was with the fact that they packaged it as a documentary, no quotations this time.  Discovery tried to balance out the fact that they blatantly made stuff up to appease some of their viewers by pointing out that they included disclaimers in the show.  Yeah, true, there were disclaimers: but click HERE to see how short and hazy these disclaimers really were.  The disclaimers read:

None of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated with it in any way, nor have approved its contents. Though certain events and characters in this film have been dramatized, sightings of "Submarine" continue to this day. Megalodon was a real shark. Legends of giant sharks persist all over the world. There is still debate about what they might be.

Notice how they never really say that none of it was true.  When he gave a press release, the executive producer of Shark Week, Michael Sorensen, said that “With a whole week of Shark Week programming ahead of us, we wanted to explore the possibilities of megalodon.  It’s one of the most debated shark discussions of all time, can megalodon exist today? It’s Ultimate Shark Week fantasy. The stories have been out there for years and with 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, who really knows?”  The part that bugs me the very, very most about that statement is the line "It's one of the most debated shark discussions of all time."  It isn't, I promise you.  It really, really isn't.  I have never heard of any paleontologist who seriously believes that megalodon swims the oceans today.  There might be some paleontologists who won't discount the possibility, which is fine.  Science changes all the time.  But with a complete and total lack of evidence, no serious scientist will really debate that sort of thing.

There's many more issues that people have had with this presentation, varying from thousands of people on social media voicing their complaints, all the way to actor Wil Wheaton, who wrote about the megalodon fiasco on his blog, which you can read HERE.  Others, such as popular paleo writer Brian Switek, went to Twitter:

I do hope that this backlash will cause the people at Discovery, as well as at other television stations, to reconsider what they make into a television program, and consider the possibility that, just maybe, there's a significant chunk of people out there who don't want to be fed this garbage.  I do hope that this causes some changes in any future programming, and if we are all really lucky, this event might spawn a South Park episode.  You have to admit, it'd be pretty perfect.  Let's just cross our fingers, shall we?

Meet Pyg!

Meet Pyg, the Triceratops hatchling! Pyg is the blog's new mascot, and will be using her unique blend of entertainment and education to help teach people about her long-lost world. Make sure to follow her on her exploits! I'll be using Pyg to help make our subject matter a little more fun, because, lets face it: dinosaurs are boring. Wow, I'm totally joking, no they're not, they rock! I'm actually with Grace Albers up in Dinosaur National Monument in Utah right now, so you'll probably be seeing some pictures from that trip pretty soon! However, tomorrow we will be talking about the recent Discovery/Megalodon controversy, so make sure to tune in then!

Black Bears on the Primos Truth Cam!

A few weeks ago, a bear savagely tore through the fence of my friends neighbors.  The Lippincott's have an alley behind their house, and the bears apparently like to use it as a thoroughfare, so I decided to try and catch one on my Primos Truth Cam!

Here, we have Sam Lippincott posing next to the bear break-in entry point.  For reference, he's about 8.5 feet tall, which gives you a sense of how tall the bear must have been.

Another photo of the damage.  The bear was trying (and succeeded) to get to the trash cans, and had proceeded in strewing the trash all over the place!

I didn't get much, but I did get a series of five pictures of a young black bear!  Check them out, pretty exciting stuff!

Adventures at the Park!

Today I went walking with Grace and her black lab puppy Kenosha!  We saw lots of cool things, and here are some pictures of some of them!

We also saw this ADORABLE and GIGANTIC dog sitting on her owners lap!!

First off, we saw some more damsel fly nymphs!  A few weeks ago when I was walking Kenosha, I saw one in a little ditch, and brought it home with me as a pet!  Here are some pictures of it then!

I talked to a local aquatic insect expert who came to talk to our Outdoor Ed class about fishing and aquatic insects named Wallace Westfeldt, and he told me that they were blue damsel nymphs!  Here are some more pictures of the blue damsel nymphs that we saw today!

And here is a picture of what these nymphs will grow in to!  They look a lot like the closely related dragonflys, but they aren't quite!

A dead crayfish in the same pond!

We also saw this hawk or falcon, I'm not quite sure which, land right in front of us on a fence!  [MESSAGE FROM THE FUTURE:  Hello, this is Zack Neher speaking to you from 12/21/2014.  As you will one day learn from Anne Price, the Curator of Raptors at the Raptor Education Foundation in Colorado, this is an adult female Cooper's hawk.  Thank you for your patience.]

Here's a few pictures of a blue jay!

We also saw this random bird that was flitting around in groups of about thirty or so!  Neither Grace or I knew what kind of bird it was, so we took a picture and sent it to my dad, but without even looking at the picture he knew that it was a nighthawk when I called him just by telling him that it looked kind of like a swallow and that it was in a large group eating insects in the air!  

Here's a close up picture of a nighthawk!

Finally, here is a picture of another cute dog that we saw!

Meet Marshosaurus, Morrison's Mysterious Meat Muncher!

If I were to tell you to picture the environment of the Morrison Formation 150 million years ago (MYA) in the Late Jurassic Period, most of you would probably have no idea what I was talking about.  For some of you, the words “Morrison” and “Late Jurassic” would trigger images of enormous sauropods like Apatosaurus and Diplodocus, with the occasional plated Stegosaurus, and the carnivorous Allosaurus.  For still fewer, images of the ornithopods Camptosaurus and Dryosaurus might appear, the theropods Ceratosaurus and the smaller Ornitholestes, and perhaps another sauropod or two.  Fewer still might picture the theropod Torvosaurus, the ankylosaur Gargoyleosaurus, and the ornithopod Othnielia.  However, very few people indeed would think of the medium sized, 20-foot long theropod Marshosaurus.

Marshosaurus bicentesimus was first named in 1976, and received the second half of its scientific binomial name (bicentesimus) from the fact that it was described during the bicentennial of the United States!  The first part of the name (Marshosaurus) honors the famous paleontologist Othniel Charles Marsh, one of two main participants in the extreme paleontological competition more than 100 years ago!  If you want to learn more about the Bone Wars, be sure to check out a song that I wrote about it below: to the tune of Carrie Underwood's "Two Black Cadillacs!"

Anyways, all silliness aside, I actually got to see what is widely considered to be the most complete Marshosaurus specimen ever discovered about a month back when my friend Sam Lippincott and I got to go on a behind the scenes tour of the Denver Museum of Nature and Science with paleontologist Dr. Ian Miller!  To be honest, even from a paleontologists perspective, the Marshosaurus specimen was definitely not the most exciting thing there, not by a long shot!  Overall, all of the known material attributed to Marshosaurus taken together, there sure isn't much: four fragmentary skeletons, composed of bits and pieces of the spine, skull, and pelvis.

One of two small trays of bones belonging to Marshosaurus that the Denver Museum has on display in the paleo lab for the time being.  Looks like we have some vertebrae and ribs!

One of two small trays of bones belonging to Marshosaurus that the Denver Museum has on display in the paleo lab for the time being.  This box contains the right maxilla of the specimen.  You actually have a right maxilla, too: just tap abut halfway between your nose and your mouth on the right side of your face: that's your right maxilla!

According to a brief article written by paleontologist Dr. Joe Sertich and published in the Denver Museum's magazine, the specimen of Marshosaurus held at the Denver Museum has "large portions of the skull....several vertebrae, bones from the back and neck, and ribs."  Although it doesn't give us a lot to work with, such fragmentary remains are often all that paleontologists have to work with!  It appears to have been enough for some scientists to come to the conclusion that Marshosaurus is a member of the megalosauroids, a distinct group of meat-eating theropod dinosaurs that includes the famous Megalosaurus, the very first dinosaur ever described!  (I would say discovered, but most people suspect that ancient races have been discovering dinosaur bones for hundreds of thousands of years: but more on that later!)  It is thought that Spinosaurus and its relatives are closely related to the megalosauroids as a group.

According to the article, the remains of the Denver Museum's Marshosaurus specimen were discovered at a site in Dinosaur National Monument that, due to a fluke of the law (I would say loophole, but I feel like that's too harsh of a word), allows the Denver Museum to collect fossils and take them back to their collections, as opposed to them going to the collections facility at the visitor's center.  At this particular site, the remains of "at least six other animals made their way back to Denver."  Amongst these remains  includes the small, plant-eating ornithopod Dryosaurus, and the very famous Stegosaurus, as well as a few bits and pieces of a crocodile!

So how likely is it that Marshosaurus will become as famous as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops?  Not very likely at all!  But it's a cool animal, and I definitely hope we find the remains of more of these guys sometime in the future!

23-Fact Tuesday: Prairie Falcon, Red-Tailed Hawk, and Great-Horned Owl at the Dino Hotel in Denver!

As I mentioned in a post just a few days ago about the Harris hawk (which you can read by clicking HERE), the fantastic dinosaur-themed remodel at the Best Western Denver Southwest is well underway, and the folks over there are making the hotel even more fantastic by having weekly raptor (bird of prey) shows on Saturdays!  Each Saturday, Anne Price, one of the folks over at the Raptor Education Foundation, brings over four birds of prey to show to the audience!  Last week, they brought over a Harris hawk (which, like I already mentioned, I talked about in a previous post), a prairie falcon, a red-tailed hawk, and a great-horned owl!  I have so much information I wanted to share with you...but how!  How could I POSSIBLY share all of this information in a non-story like, brain-dumpy fashion?  AH-HAH!  Another 23-Fact Tuesday is upon us!  But before you enjoy, make sure you check out the website for the Raptor Education Foundation by clicking HERE, and checking out the Facebook page for the Best Western Denver Southwest by clicking HERE!

1.  This particular prairie falcon actually used to fly down at the Air Force Academy, where many of the cadets have the option of training a falcon!

One of the cadets with a falcon!  Photo Credit: www.usafa.af.mil

2.  The great-horned owl used to be the only member of the genus Bubo (what a fun name, right?), but around ten years ago, scientists reclassified the snowy owl to be the second member of the genus.

Quite possibly the most famous snowy owl of all time, Hedwig from the spectacular Harry Potter series!  Photo Credit: www.lauraerickson.com

3.  As for all raptors except for the New World vultures, the female red-tailed hawks are bigger than the males.

4. Falcons like the prairie falcon and the peregrine falcon will dive at their prey and actually punch them with their balled up feet!

A peregrine falcon diving to attack a brown pelican: holy COW!  Photo Credit: www.birderslibrary.com

5.  In response to this behavior on the part of the falcons, some prey species of bird have developed very tough feathers on their back and such to defend themselves against such attacks.

6. In nocturnal owls, like the great horned owl, the eyes are surrounded by a sort of sensory dish full of hyper-sensitive feathers that can actually detect sound, funneling it into the “dish.”

7.  Diurnal owls, such as the burrowing owls, do not have this dish, or at least it is not as pronounced as other owls that are more active at night. The burrowing owl is actually most active at dawn and dusk, although it can function perfectly well at night.  

A funny looking burrowing owl!  Photo Credit: animaluniquepictures.blogspot.com

8.  Red-tailed hawks apparently love to nest in cottonwood trees.  I think I might have actually found a red-tailed hawk nest in a cottonwood tree: hopefully, there will be more information on that in a later post!

A red-tailed hawk nest in what might or might not be a cottonwood tree....Photo Credit: gaiagarden.blogspot.com

9.  The great-horned owl that Anne brought in for the presentation is DEFINITELY a survivor: he has survived being shot, hit by a car, West Nile Virus, and being attacked by another owl!

10.  Here's the scoop: this particular great-horned owl first came to the sanctuary because it was hit by a car which, in the long run, probably saved its life. The reason why it hit the car in the first place was that it was flying drunkenly about due to the fact that it had West Nile Virus, which had caused its brain to go a little loopy. The owl received the medical treatment that it needed, and it wasn’t until a few years later, when it accidentally broke its leg, that a full X-Ray was ordered, and it was revealed that the owl had a few pellets lodged in its back. The skin had grown around it and completely healed, but yeah.  Still.  What a trooper!

11.  You might have noticed on some of these great-horned owl pictures that the pupil of the left eye is MUCH more dilated than the pupil on the right eye.  This is because this great-horned owl is blind is his left eye, due to the brush with West Nile Virus we were just talking about.

12.  Later on, there was an enclosure that contained three great horned owls: two males that could fly and an older, grumpier female that couldn’t really fly that well. The two males could EASILY avoid the female by remaining up in the top of the enclosure, where the female simply could not reach them. However, one time, the people walked into the enclosure to find this particular male great horned owl perched next to the grumpy female. The female didn’t seem to be displaying any hostility towards him, so they left them together.  After a few weeks, I believe, the female had decided that she had had enough, and attacked the male, and I believe broke his wing. He can fly today, but not terribly well, and not very far.

13.  Not all red-tailed hawks have a red tail. There is a wide variety of coloric differences across its vast range, and sometimes even melanistic forms are seen. This DEFINITELY messes with birders!

A melanistic red-tailed hawk!  Melanistic, FYI, would be just like a melanistic jaguar, where the coat of the animal is very, very dark, much darker than noraml, due to a pigment issue in its genes!  Photo Credit: thenatureniche.com

14.  As a matter of fact, none of them have red-tails their first year! At that point in their life, their tails are a darkish gray-brown: muddy and dull with darker brown stripes.

A juvenile red-tailed hawk!  Photo Credit: animals.nationalgeographic.com

15.  The juveniles don’t actually get their red tails until they molt, which, at the time this post is being written (early July) is happening now, in the spring and summer.  Here, we have a video featuring the red-tailed hawk, as well as a brief appearance by a pooping Harris hawk (which unfortunately happens off screen)!

16.  Besides the owls, only one other type of raptor is able to swivel one of it's toes to face backwards, so that it has two toes pointing forwards and two toes pointing backwards: the osprey!  The osprey does this to allow for a more secure grip when catching fish, and the owls undoubtedly do it for much the same purpose when it comes to holding on to their prey.

An osprey, where you have a clear shot of its feet!  Photo Credit: www.flickr.com

17.  This particular prairie falcon has also survived a brush with West Nile Virus, just like the great horned owl!  Anne was telling us that no one really but her would know it, but he far right tail feather on this bird has grown in weirdly ever since the birds dangerous brush with the virus.  Here, we have a brief video where Anne talks a bit about this particular falcon's feather!

18.  Just like dogs, birds don't sweat.  Also just like dogs, birds will sometimes pant to help keep cool!  Below, we have a video of the great-horned owl thermoregulating via something we like to call "gular fluttering!"  

19.  As you can see in this video below, the prairie falcon is being assisted in its thermoregulation by the presenter Anne, who is misting him with some water!

20. The great-horned owl will eat (amongst other things, no doubt) worms, insects, fish, any amphibian, any reptile including rattlesnakes, scorpions, tarantulas, porcupines, skunks, raccoons, and other raptors.

A great-horned owl with a snake!  Photo Credit: www.flickr.com

21.  The two brown streaks under its eyes help keep some of the light from reflecting into its eyes, just like the black paint worn under the eyes by football and baseball players.  Another fascinating example of convergent evolution at its finest!

Convergent evolution at its finest!  Photo Credit: www.stripes.com

22.  A lot of the time when people think a hawk has gotten in and killed their chickens, its actually an owl.

A fox in the henhouse!  I couldn't find a picture of a hawk in a henhouse, and besides, I really liked this picture.  Photo Credit: www.hyscience.com

23.  For reasons that Anne couldn’t fully explain, other than maybe panic or opportunity, often when an owl finds itself in a pigeon loft, the owl will only pull out and eat one or two of the pigeons, but it will pull off the heads of almost all of them, and leave them there.  An interesting and gruesome way to end yet another fun-filled and fascinating 23-Fact Tuesday!  

And that's why people often use fake owls to scare away pigeons!  Photo Credit: loomofruin.blogspot.com

Make sure you check out the website for the Raptor Education Foundation by clicking HERE, and checking out the Facebook page for the Best Western Denver Southwest by clicking HERE!

Why Do People Hang Up Fake Owls To Scare Away Pigeons?

Because pigeons are scared of the fake owls.