Megamouth: a giant shark nobody knew
On 15 November 1976 a US Navy research vessel off Kāneʻohe, Oʻahu, hauled up a 4.5 m shark tangled in its sea anchor, a species and genus new to science.
1976 CE · 21.60, -157.55 · status: official
The account
The megamouth shark, a slow filter-feeder of the deep, was described in 1983 as Megachasma pelagios. Fewer than 300 have been recorded since. Cryptozoologists often cite it to show that large sea animals can still go unnoticed.
The sceptical view
It is a real animal, not a mystery; it shows how little of the deep sea has been sampled.
The researched reading
The best example that large animals can still be unknown: a big shark found by accident in 1976. It shows the deep sea is poorly sampled, not that land cryptids exist.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| An unknown or out-of-place animal | 95% | A genuinely new species and genus of large shark, described in 1983 as Megachasma pelagios; a 4.5 m filter-feeder had gone unnoticed by science until it fouled a US Navy sea anchor. |
| Something known, misidentified | 1% | A physical specimen was examined by ichthyologists. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 1% | Hundreds of specimens and sightings since rule this out. |
| A cultural story | 1% | There was no earlier legend; the animal was simply unknown. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 1% | Not relevant. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 1% | Known biology. |
Official position: A scientific discovery, described by Taylor, Compagno and Struhsaker in 1983.