Case file · Cryptid
'Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives'
On 4 August 2013 Discovery Channel opened Shark Week with a documentary-style film claiming the giant prehistoric shark megalodon still lives off South Africa, using actors as scientists.
2013 CE · -34.20, 18.60 · status: hoax
The account
The film opened with an invented attack on a fishing boat off Cape Town. Polls afterwards suggested most viewers believed the shark was real.
The sceptical view
Megalodon died out about 3.6 million years ago. The 'scientists' were actors, and Discovery was widely criticised by scientists, including some of its own regular guests.