# Megalodon **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 11, 2002, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984 "2002-12-11T12:00:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![trader\_of\_shots](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@trader\_of\_shots](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/trader_of_shots)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 12:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/1 "2002-12-11T12:00:34Z")
Hope i seplt that right … Giant greatwhiteish Shark. OK a while back i was reading an article (soz no link) about Meg teeth being dredge up from the sea. It was later revealed that these teeth were 2000 Years old. Did anyone else read this ? Was there ever anything further come to light ? ---
**Author:** ![smam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/46a35a/32.png) [@smam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smam)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/2 "2002-12-11T12:53:33Z")
Hey, buuuudy, just click on tha [linkages](http://members.tripod.com/~Megalodon2001/) weasel. Did you like my Pauly Shore impression? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/3 "2002-12-11T13:13:43Z")
**trader** , the search engine [Google](http://www.google.com) should be the first place to check with these questions. While the yokels around here don’t mind doing a bit of the cyber-legwork for you (look at some of **Duck Duck Goose** ’s posts :)), don’t be surprised when the first few responses to a thread are suggestions to use Google. Google: So good, it’s part of the culture. ---
**Author:** ![Bromley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4da419/32.png) [@Bromley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bromley)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/4 "2002-12-11T13:47:00Z")
And don’t worry about the spelling (which was correct anyway). Google suggests spellings. ---
**Author:** ![Rug\_Burn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a87d85/32.png) [@Rug\_Burn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rug_Burn)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/5 "2002-12-11T13:55:06Z")
Get one for yourself [here](http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&SortProperty=MetaEndSort&ht=1&query=Megalodon+) . ---
**Author:** ![Yersinia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ccd318/32.png) [@Yersinia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersinia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/6 "2002-12-11T20:15:08Z")
The generally accepted extinction date for _C. megalodon_ is about 1 million years ago. At [this](http://www.elasmo.com/frameMe.html?file=selachin/gw/c_extn.html&menu=bin/menu_topics-alt.html) site, somebody writes in to ask about the much more recent dates (~10,000 to 40,000 years ago) attributed to some teeth dredged off the ocean floor. The answering scientist responds that these teeth were dated by the thickness of the manganese deposits on their surface. Probably the teeth were eroded out of much older deposits, which would make the manganese deposits a recent encrustation on vastly older fossils. ---
**Author:** ![buzzz\_kill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/439d5e/32.png) [@buzzz\_kill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buzzz_kill)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/7 "2002-12-11T22:30:49Z")
I heard something to the same effect however, there were serious doubts in the accuracy of the testing methods and or the possibility of the fossils being contaminated,(something with the type of sediment that the teeth were found in)giving bogus results. It is widely believed by mostly all paleobiologists is that Megalodon went extinct during the Miocene or Pliocene epochs With the above exemption the fossil record agrees. Thats 25 to 1.6 million years ago. [http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/glossary/Megalodon.shtml](http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/glossary/Megalodon.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2002, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/megalodon/141984/8 "2002-12-11T22:58:24Z")
[Here](http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/~bz050/megcomment.html) is an interesting article written by the same “Ben” (Ben S. Roesch) that made the initial inquiry from **Yersinia Pestis** ’s link. The date of extinction therein is placed at the end of the Pliocene: ~1.5MYA