Facts show thriller ‘The Meg’ has bitten off more than it can chew Illness keeps Caster from race
THE PREHISTORIC Megalodon, which has “come to life” on movie screens in cinemas with the release of the thriller, The Meg, featuring action hero Jason Statham – probably swam in the ocean off the city more than 20 million years ago.
And the replica of the mammoth shark’s gaping jaw, where many a visitor to ushaka Marine World has had their holiday photograph taken, is a fitting icon to the theme park.
Jone Porter, education officer at ushaka, said the Megalodon’s relative, the great white shark, today faces the same problem the Megalodon once suffered: less food brought about by climate change.
In their heyday, the massive prehistoric shark which could grow to up to 18m long (23m in the movie) ate whales and giant turtles. “They were at the top of the food chain,” said Porter.
Sharks have not changed much in structure since then, she added. “They are well adapted to life at sea but obviously threatened. Great whites are the modern day iconic equivalent of ‘The Meg’ and we need to look after them.”
The sub-tropical factor brought Megaladons to this part of the world, although it was more the juveniles that ventured around the shores while the adults stayed further out, said Porter.
The film is based on the book Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror by Steve Alten. In the movie, a massive creature attacks a deep-sea submersible, leaving it disabled and trapping the crew at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. With time running out, rescue diver Jonas Taylor, (Statham), must save the crew and the ocean from an unimaginable threat – the 23m-long prehistoric Megalodon (meaning big tooth).
While there are theories as to “The Meg” possibly still existing, a Forbes magazine opinion piece by Priya Shukla “Why ‘The Meg’ Is Entertaining, But Scientifucally Inaccurate”, says, “Given that Discovery Channel produced a false documentary that seeded doubt about Megalodon’s extinction among its viewers. And Alten has taken every opportunity to espouse his non-expert beliefs that the shark may still exist, fears about this latest take on Megalodon re-popularising conspiracy theories about undiscovered populations as well as other falsehoods about the extinct predator are well-founded.”
According to Porter, scientists view the notion that the Megalodon still lurks about is as equivalent to the Bigfoot myth of Northwest America. Or the Loch Ness monster.
She said fossils found were generally of juveniles and mainly teeth. “A shark fossil can only come from the teeth and the vertebra. The rest is cartilage.”
This hasn’t made studying the vanished creature easy and there is controversy among taxonomists about its classification. “We know it’s related in some way to the great white shark, but whether its a close relative or not is subject to some controversy.
Looking at the size of the jaw replica at ushaka Sea World, she said: “You can imagine how much it would have needed to eat.” It’s a replica of a reconstruction made from fossils at the University of Florida, in the US, said Porter. SOUTH Africa’s Caster Semenya will no longer headline the Müller Grand Prix in Birmingham today after pulling out through illness.
She was to have competed in the women’s 1 500m.
Semenya picked up an undisclosed illness at the African Championships in Nigeria last week, and was unable to train for a week, and was not feeling ready to compete, according to athleticsweekly.com.
Ahead of the event she said: “It has been such an amazing 12 months for me and I cannot wait to continue it by competing back in the UK again, and in Birmingham for the first time ever.
“It is rare that I get to race somewhere for the first time, so that in particular is really exciting and will motivate me to perform very well in what I know will be a great, great race.”
Although she was not set to compete in her favoured 800m event, in which she has claimed three world titles in 2009, 2011 and 2017 and back-to-back Olympic golds, Semenya was continuing to attempt to break new ground in the longer race. In the 1 500m, Semenya has already claimed world bronze and Commonwealth gold in the past year and set a new national record of 3:59:92.
She also added the national record of 49:96 in the 400m to her growing list of achievements. – African News Agency (ANA)