Megalodon - in Fiction

In Fiction

Megalodon has been portrayed in several works of fiction, including films and novels, and continues to hold its place among the most popular subjects for fiction involving sea monsters. Many of these works posit that at least a relict population of megalodon survived extinction and lurk in the vast depths of the ocean, and that individuals may manage to surface, either by human intervention or by natural means. Jim Shepard's story "Tedford and the Megalodon" is an example of this. Such beliefs are usually inspired by the discovery of a megalodon tooth by members of HMS Challenger in 1872, which some believed to be only 10,000 years old. This tooth was later re-examined, but is untestable for age.

Some works of fiction (such as Shark Attack 3: Megalodon and Steve Alten's Meg series) incorrectly depict megalodon as being a species over 70 million years old, and to live during the time of the dinosaurs. The writers of the movie Shark Attack 3: Megalodon depicted this assumption by including an altered copy of Great White Shark by shark researcher Richard Ellis. The copy shown in the film had several pages that do not exist in the book. The author sued the film's distributor, Lions Gate Entertainment, asking for a halt to the film's distribution along with $150,000 in damages. Steve Alten's Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror is probably best known for portraying this inaccuracy with its prologue and cover artwork depicting megalodon killing a tyrannosaur in the sea. Megalodon also makes a star appearance in Mega Shark Versus Giant Octopus, however it is able to perform such feats as leaping tens of thousands of feet into the air from the ocean to attack a commercial aircraft, forcing it to crash into the water.

The Animal Planet fictional documentary, Mermaids: The Body Found, included an encounter 1.6 million years ago between a pod of mermaids and a megalodon.