Kateclodfelter's List: Mythbusters

• Shark Week "Megalodon" on Discovery Channel on August 4, 2013.
• The television program goes on to speculate that a giant "Megalodon" shark (60-100 feet long and thought to be extinct for 2 million years) was responsible for the boat capsizing.
• In August 2013, Discovery Channel kicked off its popular annual "Shark Week" programming with an episode entitled Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives (and followed it up in August 2014 with Megalodon: The New Evidence).
• Of course, the faux "researchers" in this episode ("marine biologist" Colin Drake isn't a real person but rather a fictional role played by actor Darron Meyer) never did find hard evidence of a living megalodon;
• The megalodon species of shark did exist, and it's not absolutely impossible that an undocumented species of huge shark lives in the oceans' depths
• But no such discovery or substantive evidence about living megalodons was at hand in the 2013 "Shark Week" premiere
• the possibility that some megalodons might still be around isn't even a subject of genuine inquiry or controversy among legitimate scientists:
• "There is no discussion among fisheries professionals whether Megalodon is extinct," he said. "If even one credible scientist had doubts about this, the Discovery Channel wouldn’t have had to use actors." 
  
• Dovi Kacev, a PhD candidate at San Diego State University
• "Never do any of my colleagues or I ever plausibly argue that Megalodon is still extant."
• Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives included a briefly-displayed disclaimer declaring the program's use of "dramatized" events and characters to make up for a lack of hard science and credible evidence:
• The evidence was faked, the stories fabricated, and the scientists portrayed on it were actors. The idea that Megalodon could still be roaming the ocean is a complete and total myth.

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• The fossil record is clear that after about 14 million years of feasting on marine mammals, the 50-foot-long, “mega-toothed” shark exited the evolutionary stage by two and a half million years ago.
• Megalodon is dead.
• The program was a shark version of Forrest Gump, with fabricated evidence showing the shark popping up through human history, and had just enough polish to convince many viewers that megalodon is still chomping whales and snaffling up the occasional boat.
• The fauxumentary was popular enough that Discovery hastily threw together a sequel for this year’s Shark Week carrying the unimaginative title Megalodon: The New Evidence.
• He’s among the scientists who are showing that megalodon doesn’t need the reality TV treatment to inspire awe.

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• On Saturday, Discovery Channel will air Megalodon: The New Evidence, a sequel to the 2013 “documentary” Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives.
• Carcharocles megalodon
• Though it appears convincing, the “evidence” presented in these Shark Week documentaries is not real. It consists of interviews with witnesses and experts who are actually actors, as well as photoshopped imagery.
• First and foremost, no one has ever seen one, and no evidence that they are still alive has ever been produced. Out of the countless megalodon tooth fossils that have been found around the world, none have been dated at less than 1.5 million years old.
• Some species of sharks can go through tens of thousands of teeth in their lifetime, which means that if these animals were still alive, someone would almost certainly have found a tooth younger than 1.5 million years old.
• While some claim that scientists haven’t seen any evidence of megalodon because they live in deep water, Pimiento’s research shows that these sharks in fact lived in shallow coastal seas.
• The deep is much too nutrient poor to support such a large animal.
• Discovery Channel chose to lie to their viewers, actively spreading fear and promoting misunderstanding about one of the most threatened groups of animals in the world. Again.

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• Carcharocles megalodon sharks were amazing animals. They were capable of growing up to 50 feet long and are commonly regarded as the largest predatory sharks that ever lived.
• there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that these sharks are extinct and have been for millions of years.
• In 2013, Shark Week aired Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives, the latest in a series of totally made-up nonsense from Discovery Channel
• The Monster Shark Lives featured actors playing scientists, photoshopped pictures, and fake digital video.
• Conservation activists have been upset at Shark Week’s focus on fear-mongering “shark attack” specials rather than the conservation of a group of animals of which 25 percent are threatened with extinction.
• Christie Wilcox. “All they care about is ratings, and they’ll deceive if not outright lie to their audience to get them.”
• The supposed fishing vessel incident did not occur; it was entirely made up for the purpose of storytelling. Collin Drake is not a marine biologist; he is a fictional character played by an actor.

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• a TV show that starts with suspiciously staged-looking video footage of a charter boat capsizing off the coast of South Africa, and no references can be found about this accident (in which three passengers were supposedly killed) from reliable online news sources?