Ancient Shark spotted

[BreadBros]

I guess I can post this here since it deals with an aspect of the environment, although its not really a contentious issue (this forum isnt very lively to begin with though).

http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoChannel.a...8aed35b5d30e013 (http://today.reuters.com/tv/videoChannel.aspx?storyid=1a194f615fd608c0c94bfeb6 78aed35b5d30e013)

Thats a video of a shark that is rarely sighted and has the bizarre proportions reminiscent of ancient sharks in general, it was spotted while surfacing near Japan. I thought it was fascinating.

[Hit The North]

And then they killed it. :(

[Sentinel]

That was really amazing, and yes, this forum was an excellent choice for posting this topic. :)

The depths of the oceans do have some quite interesting inhabitants indeed, as it's an environment quite different to the one we are used to -- not only are we incapable of breathing under water, but also the pressure and the darkness down there are alien for us.

The species that live there are wonderful proof of how life adapts to the most extreme conditions, and research on them might just teach us a thing or two.

[Janus]

Though it's only a sighting, it's well-known that many species exist out there that we have absolutely no knowledge of, and this ancient shark could just be one of them. Of course, this still requires greater research so as to deduce whether or not it's simply just a visual error or not.

[which doctor]

Originally posted by [email protected] 24, 2007 09:59 pm
Though it's only a sighting, it's well-known that many species exist out there that we have absolutely no knowledge of, and this ancient shark could just be one of them. Of course, this still requires greater research so as to deduce whether or not it's simply just a visual error or not.
It's actually a video of one that was caught, surely not a visual error.

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2007/01_wk4/FrilledSharkG_468x331.jpg

[Janus]

Whoops. After some research, it looks like there have been live specimens of the frilled shark so I suppose there's no debate over its existence.

I had assumed from the original post that all that they had were mere sightings of the creature as it only rarely surfaced.

[encephalon]

The question is, can we eat it?

That is a pretty insane looking shark, though. I wish we had some more impressive shots of giant squid like that, actually.. but they live about twice as deep, from what I remember.

[Sentinel]

And then they killed it. :(

Perhaps it was dying already? I very much doubt it could have survived the pressure change for long anyway. So my guess would be it came up to die; maybe it was too old and weak to keep itself safe from ending up as lunch for some other ugly fish. Sharks prey on the weak, and some of them are even cannibals. Who knows though.

Do we have a shark specialist here?

It's gills look really weird..

[JazzRemington]

God that thing looks evil, like it wants to destroy humanity or something.

[piet11111]

too bad its not the megalodon (spelling?) that would have been awesome.
but this shark is also impressive and quite nasty looking.

i heared we know more of the moons surface then about the depths of the seas.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 09:15 am
The depths of the oceans do have some quite interesting inhabitants indeed, as it's an environment quite different to the one we are used to -- not only are we incapable of breathing under water, but also the pressure and the darkness down there are alien for us.

The species that live there are wonderful proof of how life adapts to the most extreme conditions, and research on them might just teach us a thing or two.
oh yeah, just like the giant squirt or giant octopus.does anyone had a picture of it? :wub: i've seen a picture of giant squirt that captured in japan(why it always in japan?), but giant octopus...never. :(

[Sentinel]

I was a little bored so I did some image searching.

Megalodon was an impressive beast indeed. Imagine swimming next to one:

http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/376/megalodon0fy.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Talk about jaws:

http://img213.imageshack.us/img213/7600/megalodon012zp.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


The megalodon, Carcharodon megalodon, (from ancient Greek μεγας = "big" + 'οδους (genitive 'οδοντος) = "tooth") was a giant prehistoric shark that probably lived between about 16 to 1.6 million years ago, but recent studies have stated the shark may have gone extinct only 10,000 years ago. It is considered to be the largest predatory fish to have ever lived.

The best-educated estimates of this creature's maximum size range from 12 to 16 m (40 to 52 ft) (previous much larger reconstructions of the shark's size, up to about 30 m (100 ft), are now generally considered inaccurate).[2] From the size of this shark, its weight is estimated as high as 60 tons, though 20 to 30 tons was more likely. Assuming similar metabolic-weight ratios as the great white shark, it is estimated that a large megalodon would need to eat about one-fiftieth of its weight of food on average per day. From our knowledge of the food chain during megalodon's existence, it is generally believed that this shark's diet consisted mostly of whales, along with large fish and primitive pinnipeds and sirenians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon

Here's a Giant Octopus..

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9004/octopusandclams25lk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And these are the ugly as fuck Giant Squids:

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/6818/giantsquid4hi.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/3520/giantsquid2501886ms.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

I also found an interesting story about the sex life of giant squids (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/giant_squid_250188.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.cdnn.info/news/eco/e050925.html&h=188&w=250&sz=15&hl=en&start=10&tbnid=Z0xnqh1mplm42M:&tbnh=83&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dgiant%2Bsquid%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den% 26lr%3D%26rlz%3D1B2GGGL_enSE176%26sa%3DX).

[RedAnarchist]

I saw the video on the news - it's not the prettiest of creatures, but its from a species that has been around longer than we have and there may be more of its kind in the oceans.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 10:53 pm
Here's a Giant Octopus..

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9004/octopusandclams25lk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


is that really are the Giant Octopus? coz it seem like the Regular Octopus.

but ...man,that Megalodon is awesome, maybe it is the king of the ocean 10.000 years ago.

[Sentinel]

is that really are the Giant Octopus? coz it seem like the Regular Octopus.

Nah. This is though:

http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9135/be00226019thcenturyprin9dl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Seriously speaking, atleast according to this website (http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/AdoptSpecies/AnimalInfo/GiantOctopus/images/octopusandclams2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Support/AdoptSpecies/AnimalInfo/GiantOctopus/default.cfm&h=138&w=220&sz=26&hl=en&start=116&tbnid=SZEKKnjVEhAqfM:&tbnh=67&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dbiggest%2Boctopus%26start%3D108%26nds p%3D18%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26rlz%3D1B2G GGL_enSE176%26sa%3DN) the picture in my last post is of a being called a 'Giant Octopus'. I'm happy to admit that I'm no specialist though.

[Knight of Cydonia]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 11:24 pm
http://img409.imageshack.us/img409/9135/be00226019thcenturyprin9dl.jpg (http://imageshack.us)


Man..is that picture for real? :o

oh and i've heard the story about what so called "Kraken" (Giant Octopus), i assume if that picture was real and not only the imaginary of the drawer, that will be it, Kraken taken the whole ship down and sink it. :huh:

[razboz]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 06:08 am

And then they killed it. :(

Perhaps it was dying already? I very much doubt it could have survived the pressure change for long anyway. So my guess would be it came up to die; maybe it was too old and weak to keep itself safe from ending up as lunch for some other ugly fish. Sharks prey on the weak, and some of them are even cannibals. Who knows though.

Do we have a shark specialist here?

It's gills look really weird..
Im no specialist, but when animals come up from the deep naturally they dont uffer from the pressure change. indeed their fluids (and any potential air spaces) have time to decompress. Its only when we specimens are collected from the deep that they unfortunately explode or die due to the rapidly changing pressure.

The shark was sick apparently, which is why it came up in the first place.

[chimx]

Some Japanese researchers recently caught a live giant squid too and captured it on camera. I think it was 20-some feet long.

The ocean scares me.

[RedAnarchist]

Humanity has sent people into space, but we know little about the deepest oceans and most humans will never see most of the animals who live miles below the surface.

[razboz]

Originally posted by [email protected] 25, 2007 04:38 pm
Humanity has sent people into space, but we know little about the deepest oceans and most humans will never see most of the animals who live miles below the surface.
The Swarm is an interesting book dealing with this issue. Its a work of science fiction and gets digustingly patriotic near the end, but it deals with some really interesting topics i thought.

[Janus]

oh yeah, just like the giant squirt or giant octopus.does anyone had a picture of it?
Giant octopus (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6647659487495659414)

And they recently caught a giant squid in Japan. There's are a lot of marine research in Japan (due to the fact that the fishery industry is so important and big).

[Janus]

Seriously speaking, atleast according to this website the picture in my last post is of a being called a 'Giant Octopus'.


oh and i've heard the story about what so called "Kraken" (Giant Octopus), i assume if that picture was real and not only the imaginary of the drawer, that will be it, Kraken taken the whole ship down and sink it.

There are records of giant octopuses being over 100 pounds and over 20 ft but I think the average is around 30 pounds.

[Kia]

Thanks so much for posting this! i really wanted to see the video.


Anyways i dont think that "we killed the shark". It was way out of its usual habitat and im pretty sure it couldnt survive in the current situation....anyways scientists wouldnt want to kill something like that...theyd benefit much more from keeping it alive and studying it.




anyways.....




GIANT SQUID!!!!!!! My all time favorite creature!! Yes, japanese scientists got the first live footage of giant squid recently! Its a big leap in the study of them and hopefully more footage will be caught soon. Interestingly enough though, they are not the largest squid. Colossal Squid are larger...recently labeled as a seperate species (right word?) they are much larger and even more scarier....they have rotating hooks on their suckers that shred through almost anything.

[BreadBros]

So this thread inspired me to look up more info on Giant/Colossal Squids and what not. I found this interesting article on deep-sea gigantism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep-sea_gigantism. Now imagine staring down a Giant Isopod: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Bathynomus_giganteus.jpg :o :o :o http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Giant_isopod.jpg
Thats some scary shit!