Giant Squid (or "Enter: The Kraken!")

[AKM]

TED Talk on last year's filming of the giant squid by Dr. Edith Widder.  Old news, I guess, but still interesting.

 

http://www.ted.com/talks/edith_widder_how_we_found_the_giant_squid

 

She makes some valid points about sea stories and the lack of exploration and resulting lack of knowledge of our own planet.  Considering how little is known, and the "stories" that people who ply the worlds oceans for their living come back with, perhaps more attention should be paid to some of the more "ridiculously far out there" stories; especially when, over the years, more than one individual or crew comes back reporting roughly the same thing.

 

An example thereof would be the Oarfish, origionally described as a Sea Serpent, and with good reason.  http://www.seasky.org/deep-sea/oarfish.html

 

Another good example:  the Coelcanth.  Thought extinct for millions of years... until one showed up in a fishermans net.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coelacanth

[Ashkandii]

yet we all want to explore different planets, when we haven't even explored our own

[LaEspada]

All myths are based on some truth.

That' goes for those ancient sea maps that had sea monsters drawn on oceans. All stories had to have some origin.

 

Imagine how many ancient monster stories that have simply been blown off as ramblings of crazy people might actually have real proof.

The giant squid is the best example of this since it's been proven it's real, but for hundreds of years everyone thought they were just crazy.

[Darkening Demise]

Speaking of giants, the megaladon is supposedly considered to still be lurking deep in the waters.

The things of fairy tales that people still wish to think are real. *sigh* What's next, new evidence Santa Claus is real or the Easter Bunny? *facepalm*

[Ashkandii]

oh dam i thought Megaladon was simply a BF4 Fun thing, never knew it was based off a myth.

dam...one big ass shark.

[AKM]

Not a myth, reality.  Just long dead reality.  The question is not "did it ever live" (myth ie, "it never existed"), but rather "is it still living, lurking somewhere in the ocean depths we have yet to explore?"

 

Megalodon

 

 

 

 

 

Tooth

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big tooth (too big? Questionable?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Either way, "one big ass shark", definitively.

[AKM]

Ran across this today.  Roughskin Dogfish and Sleeper sharks.

 

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/11/alien-sharks-dogfish-and-sleeper-shark/20945141/?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl34|sec1_lnk2%26pLid%3D513795

[Guest Omega1084]

Awesome!

I'm gonna go on a tiny internet shark knowledge binge! :DD

[Gilibran]

Biggest problem is that it is easier to engineer something to withstand vacuum of space then the immense presures of the deep sea.

 

Being a diver is a more dangerous occupation then being a astranout. It's more dangerous a few feet under water then 20 miles above the planet :-)

[Odessa]

The shoggoth is pretty weird too, there may be a few still lurking deep in the Antarctic ocean, or at least an academic expedition suggested it in the 1930s.