All language subtitles for Expedition Unknown S08E00 Megalodon, 1080p WEB x264 CAFFEiNE.Eng

♪

♪

♪

perfect.
Standing by.

♪

shark on your right!
Right!

Look! Look!

♪

gates:
My name is josh gates...

Look! [ laughs ]

...I've traveled the world

investigating
the greatest legends in history.

Oh, god!

...Now I'm diving
into "shark week"

to solve the mystery of
the ocean's ultimate predator.

Oh, my god!

Man: Whoa!
Watch out!

It's on me!

This is "expedition unknown:
Megalodon."

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

mexico's baja peninsula.

Today, it's a tourist hotspot,

but 20 million years ago,

these waters were patrolled

by a terrifying dinosaur
of the deep.

I stand about
six foot, two inches,

which is why I'm lucky
I don't have to swim

anywhere near this guy.

Meet otodus megalodon,

otherwise known as the meg.

60 feet long, 12 feet high,

and weighing in at 60 tons,

the meg was
a real-life marine monster.

But after a 17-million-year run
at the top of the food chain,

the meg suddenly vanished.

So, how did this ancient
king of the deep go extinct?

Using fossilized teeth,

the latest research
is uncovering

a deep-sea "game of thrones"

that pitted one species
of shark against another

in a prehistoric battle
for survival.

Now, I'm joining shark expert
james ketchum

on the hunt for fossils,

teeth that could provide
vital clues

to solve the ocean's
greatest murder mystery --

who killed the mighty meg?

So, let's talk
about the meg.

Here's what I know --

the meg is real

and jason statham
killed it.

[ laughs ]

it's not true.

It was real except that
it lived millions of years ago.

Okay, so,
don't trust hollywood.

No.
Give me a sense

of how big
this animal was.

It was as large
as 60 feet,

as large
as a humpback whale.

That's crazy.
That's humongous.

So, this was
one of its habitats?

Absolutely. We actually
find fossilized teeth

throughout
the whole peninsula.

Why is a tooth the best way
to understand this animal?

The tooth is the only thing
that's left

because
it's made of bone.

So, these teeth really are
like its fingerprints.

Exactly, yes.

Unlike most murder mysteries,
this one has no corpse.

That's because the meg,
like all sharks,

was made mainly of cartilage
and soft tissue,

leaving behind
almost no physical remains

in the fossil record,

except for one -- teeth.

So, the meg's extinct, so I
don't have to worry about that.

No.
So, anything else here

I should worry about?
There's bull sharks.

Come on.

Bull sharks earned their name
for their powerful body,

flat snout, and aggressive,
unpredictable attitude.

They are the charging bull
of the shark kingdom.

♪

I have to say,
as someone who's been diving

since I was a little kid...
Yeah.

...I don't like
bull sharks.

I've worked hard
to avoid bull sharks.

They do tend to bite people,

but because they mistake
the people for other fish.

So, we're kind of going
into their home turf.

Yeah.

Perfect.
Yeah.

James is taking me
to a secret fossil bed

where meg teeth have
previously been found.

♪

♪

♪

♪

♪

we're looking for fossils

that have broken loose
from the bedrock,

hidden beneath the sand.

And since we're not on the top
of the food chain down here,

james acts
as a much-needed lookout.

I continue combing the sandy
bottom,

adding to my shell collection,

when suddenly,
I realize we're not alone.

Growing up to 13 feet

and weighing in
at more than 700 pounds,

bulls have
the most powerful bite

in relation to
their body size of any shark,

chomping down with nearly
6,000 newtons of force.

Bull sharks hunt big prey items
like sea turtles and dolphins.

They're not afraid to pick on
something their own size.

And right now, that's us.

As the curious
bull sharks circle,

I nervously scour
the bottom for teeth.

♪

it doesn't belong to a meg,

but the fact that it's here
is a good sign.

Just like bull sharks,

megs would have kept the shark
tooth fairy very, very busy,

shedding thousands of teeth
in their lifetimes,

replacing each one
with a new razor-sharp tooth

in line behind it.

With the bull shark starting
to look a little peckish

and with no other teeth
in sight,

we turn back to the surface.

♪

whoo!

Thanks, man.

We got a bull shark tooth,
but no meg teeth.

So, moving on.

To crack the case on what took
down this jurassic shark,

I need to find one of its teeth.

So, I trade in my flippers

to continue the hunt
in an unexpected location.

♪

so, you might be wondering
why the teeth of a beast

that lived in the ocean
would be found

in the middle of the desert.

It's a fair question.

It's not because megalodon
was a land shark

or because he was blown here
by a sharknado,

it's because
the entire baja peninsula

was actually underwater.

Tectonic forces
created the baja peninsula

about 5.6 million years ago.

What was once ocean floor
is now arid desert.

To find a meg tooth fossil,

I'm going to have to dig,

and I've called in
a heavy-hitter for backup.

The guy that I'm going to meet

is named dr. Robert
boessenecker.

He's a paleontologist at the
forefront of meg research,

and he's helping to redefine
the timeline

as to when this super-shark

vanished off
the face of the earth.

♪

dr. Boessenecker,
I presume.

You must be josh.

I'm a man in search
of a meg tooth.

Until recently,

the meg's disappearance wasn't
considered a mystery at all.

That's because scientists
had the date wrong.

Gates:
So, the conventional wisdom

as to when the meg
went extinct used to be what?

About 2 million
years ago.

Couple hypotheses are
it's the onset of the ice age,

things are
getting colder,

and also there's a supernova
about 2 million years ago

that bathed the earth
in muon radiation.

Muon radiation?

That sounds like
a made-up term, but okay.

The old thinking makes sense.

Only something as lethal as an
ice age or deadly radiation

could have taken out something
as formidable as the meg,

but not so fast.

We started looking
at fossil teeth,

and we noticed
that most of the teeth

were no younger
than 3 1/2 million years in age.

So, the meg went extinct
a million years

before anybody thought?
Exactly.

Okay, that's
a huge deal.

Yes.

So, 3 million
years ago,

we did not have
any sort

of a big, worldwide
cataclysmic event.

So, that means we have
to find another reason

for the meg's demise?
Yes.

Alright, josh, right on the side
of this little ridge

is where we're gonna
start looking.

This is a really great zone
for finding fossil shark teeth.

Wow. Just literally
on the ground?

Yeah. They are washed out
from the rain.

Just get your nose
up in the rock

and I guarantee
you'll find one.

Only a paleontologist
would say that.

Or a crack dealer.

One of the two.
That's it.

Oh, check it out.
Here we go. Here's one.

Look at that!

Literally embedded
in the rock.

That's probably a bull shark
or maybe a dusky.

That is incredible.

Ah. Here we go.
Here's one.

Ah. Check it out.
Here we go.

Oh, here's one.

Oop, here's one.
Ooh, right there.

I'm gonna have a necklace
by the end of the day.

That's a whale bone.

Wow!
It's probably fossilized,

and one way
to tell the difference

is whether or not it sticks
to your tongue.

So...

What percentage
of paleontologists
are single, by the way?

It's a high number,
right?

It is, indeed.
Yeah.

So, yeah, this is
definitely fossilized.

The good doctor and I get back
to work,

dusting, scraping, and yes,

occasionally licking
every square inch of rock

under the baja sun.

Oh, hey, josh!
Come over here!

We got something!
-What do you got, man?

Right here.
Gates: Look at that!

It's huge!

Yeah,
that's the root of it.

That's crazy!

Okay, let's see
if we can pull it out.

Okay, let me
get underneath it.

Keep going.

Boessenecker: I think
you can pull it now.

Oh, my god!
Whoa.

Look at that!

Gates:
I'm in baja, mexico to solve
a prehistoric murder mystery --

what drove the megalodon shark,

the biggest, most powerful
predator of all time,

to extinction?

Paleontologist
dr. Robert boessenecker

believes the answer may lie
in the meg's fossilized teeth,

and we just found one.

Oh, my god!
Boessenecker: Whoa.

Look at that!
Beautiful.

Are you kidding me?

Look at the size
of this thing!

That is a massive tooth.

That's unbelievable!

So, this is a full
adult meg tooth?

Yeah, this is from
a shark that was about

50 to 60 feet
in length.

That is huge.

And it's just one
of the estimated

276 super-sized chompers

that lined this super-shark's
11-foot mouth.

So, what can we learn
from a tooth like this?

So, this tooth is really big,
it's triangular,

it's thick,
it's got serrated cutting edges.

This is an animal
that had teeth adapted

for feeding
on quite large prey.

And in fact, I brought
something along to show you.

What is this?

This is
a fossil whale rib

with megalodon
bite marks on it.

And on this side,

the megalodon bit
all the way through the rib.

That's insane.

Fossil evidence indicates

that the meg's primary diet
was whales.

But around 3 to 4 million
years ago,

the number and size of whales
began to decline.

Because of this, the meg had
to turn to smaller whales

and perhaps another
more plentiful food source.

The problem was
they weren't the only ones

who had a taste for seal.

Okay, so, if it didn't die out
from some mass extinction event,

what killed the meg?

Could have been out-competed
by a number of different sharks.

And one of them is still alive
right here in baja today.

It's still alive?
Yes.

So, shark species
that are alive today

once went head-to-head
with megalodons

in the hunt for smaller prey.

In fact, one of the biggest,
strongest, and fastest

can be found in the waters
off baja california --

the mako shark.

To learn if the mako
could have given megalodons

a run for their money,

I'm meeting with shark behavior
ecologist tristan guttridge.

Just put that
on the bucket there.

Tristan.
Hey.

Josh. How are you, man?
How are doing?

Nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you, too.

I hear you're the man
to see about a mako?

Yes.
Let's go find some.

Let's do it.

We motor out three miles
with the finest selection

of shark caviar aboard,

and it turns out sharks aren't
the only creatures out here

with a taste
for the finer things.

♪

[ seal barking ]

♪

how can you deny a sweet
little face like that?

♪

satiated, the puppy-dog
of the sea slips away.

With most of
our precious cargo intact

for our real target,
we press on.

So, I've now seen one of these
meg teeth up close and personal,

and it is terrifying.
Yeah.

So, the question is,
could another animal

really have helped drive

this huge predator
to extinction?

Something did it in.
Could it be the mako?

Makos were around
at the same time.

The only way you're gonna
find that out

is by getting in the water
with a mako shark

and getting up close
and personal with it.

I was afraid
you were gonna say that.

[ laughter ]

growing just 14 feet long,
the mako would have been dwarfed

by the 60-foot meg.

But it has one big advantage --

the mako is fast,

capable of swimming
up to 60 miles per hour.

The mako is the ferrari
of the shark kingdom.

But was superior speed enough
to out-compete the meg?

Guttridge: Josh, this is
the mako-whisperer.

He's our secret weapon
to getting a mako.

So, how do you
get makos here?

Gates:
Hey, a free meal is all it takes
to get me somewhere.

And we're not just relying
on jacopo's culinary expertise.

What is
this bad boy called?

And what does
this noise do?

Cool.

We're hitting
three senses.

We're hitting visual,
we're hitting smell,

and we're hitting acoustic,
hearing, as well.

Great.
Yeah.

It's almost like I could
just lay down and have a beer.

While the crew dumps
gallon after gallon

of jaws juice into the drink,

I partake in another
time-honored cabo tradition,

[ snoring ]

the mid-day siesta.

[ intense music plays ]

[ calm guitar music plays ]
[ snores ]

[ intense music resumes ]

♪

tristan, any sharks?

No, nothing yet.
You just let me know, man.

I'm ready at
a moment's notice.

I'm on high alert
over here.

When you hear
that word "shark," though,

you'll be up.
I'm already up.

[ laughs ]

it turns out diving for sharks
is a lot like fishing.

There's plenty of waiting.

♪

-shark!
-Shark, shark, shark, shark!

♪

what do we got?
I think it's a blue.

♪

wow.

♪

blue sharks are
formidable predators,

and have even been observed
hunting in packs,

growing up to 12 feet long

and weighing in
at around 400 pounds.

Could the blue shark
be a dark horse contender

for the title of meg killer?

Another pelagic predator,
ocean wanderer.

Beautiful animal.

♪

as you can see, really
beautiful blue coloration.

Gates: It really does.
It has, like, a blue tint.

And then the big
pectoral fins --

almost like an underwater
aeroplane coming in.

♪

oh, my word.

And if you notice, the mouth
is set slightly further back,

so they've got
this quite big snout.

They should be called
pinocchio shark, really.

With its long nose
and recessed jaw,

the blue shark is best equipped
to eat squid and small fish.

It rarely goes after
the seals, dolphins,

and larger prey
that the meg chased.

These blue sharks --

certainly no competition
for something like the meg.

No chance.
No chance.

♪

seems like
he's kind of taken off.

Because there is
other sharks around.

Could be something else
in the neighborhood.

-Yeah.
-Yeah.

Maybe a good sign
that he took off.

-Oh, yeah.
-Mm-hmm.

♪

-shark! Shark! Shark!
-Shark! Shark!

Oh, whoa!
Whoa!

Another one.

Is it a blue?
No, it's a mako!

Look!

♪

he's got
that triangle fin.

♪

we got a mako!
Mako, guys!

Alright.
Let's get in the water.

Let's get in.
Come on.

We race
to get our gear on...

♪

and jump in.

♪

shark, shark, shark!
Starting to get away!

Look, look, look!
Hammerhead! Hammerhead!

Gates: The unique hammer shape
gives these sharks

nearly 360 degrees of vision.

They can see what's
going on above

and below at the same time.

♪

♪

gates: I'm off the coast
of baja, mexico,

with shark behaviorist
tristan guttridge

to see
if they lightning-fast

mako shark could have
out-competed the massive

megalodon for prey like seals,
leading to its extinction.

After chumming the water
to attract one of the ocean's

most dangerous predators,

we were smack in the middle
of a shark feeding frenzy.

♪

♪

♪

♪

gates: Tristan and I hold
onto the bait line

as the mako absolutely
demolishes his dinner.

♪

the fastest shark on earth

is designed for
high-speed pursuit,

with its torpedo-shaped body
and powerful tail.

And this one looks like
it wants dessert.

♪

♪

josh, you've noticed
the speed one this mako.

It's crazy.
It turns on a dime.

There is nothing
getting from a mako.

And so in terms of competing
with a meg,

when it comes to speed,

no question,
makos could compete.

In terms of speed,
I don't think

the meg would have stood
a chance against a mako.

So in terms of its bite,
it doesn't seem like it's able

to get huge pieces of meat
off these things.

You can see those teeth
are like daggers.

Right.
They're designed to grip.

Right.

To grip a pray
like some slippery fish.

Yeah.

And the moment
it's got that fish,

it just swallows it
and engulfs it whole.

Right.

The meg can really
pull massive chunks

out of whales and cetaceans,
and things like that.

So the mako is not gonna be able
to take out prey

the meg
would have gone after.

So when we look at what may have
taken out the meg,

it doesn't seem like the mako's
actually a good suspect.

The mako,
despite it being

a high-performance
apex predator,

it's not the culprit
that took out meg.

It seems the theory that
the mako took down the megalodon

doesn't have any teeth --
or at least not the right ones.

But there's another shark
that may have been big enough,

strong enough, and fast enough
to challenge the mighty meg --

the great white.

To see these modern masters
of the deep

and get to the bottom of this
mystery once and for all,

I'm traveling to the great white
shark capital of the world.

From cabo, it's more than
9,000 miles

southeast to mossel bay,
south africa.

♪

I'm heading out
before the crack of dawn

with acclaimed shark researcher
alison towner.

It turns out great whites
and alison are morning people.

So I'm gonna need
some orientation here.

Where am I other
than south africa?

So you are in a great white
shark hot spot

known as mossel bay.

And what we have that's very
unique here is, just over there,

a stone's throw from the harbor,
we have a large rock

that is home
to a colony of cape fur seals.

Home to more than
8,000 cape fur seals,

seal island is like an endless
vending machine

for great whites.

♪

they patrol these waters,

waiting for seals to stray
too far from shore.

Then they strike.

So what I'm really interested in
is understanding

how the great white operates,
how it hunts,

and whether it truly could have
been kind of a death knell

for he meg.
So how do we do that?

We're gonna perform a really
interesting series

of experiments here,
because it's the perfect place

to test things like the hunting
strategies of white sharks,

how fast they can swim,
how they manipulate their prey.

So there's lots of different
angles we can watch them

from here to try
to better answer your questions.

Okay.

Modern great white sharks can
grow to more than 20 feet long,

but they're just one-third
the length of the meg.

So could the great white
have been able to out-hunt

its prehistoric rival,
leading to the meg's extinction?

To find out, alison has set up
a series of experiments

to investigate the attack
strategy of the great white.

So we're gonna put this
seal decoy in the water

about 50 feet behind the boat,
and the idea is to try

and simulate the movement
of a cape fur seal in transit.

And we're hoping
we can elicit a response.

A breach where they come up
vertically and out of the water.

Correct.
Known as a polaris breach.

And I'll tell you
something --

to see the white shark
in the water is incredible.

But to see it a few feet
in the air

is absolutely
mind-blowing.

We toss our foam decoy
into the murky waters

and set it adrift
a short distance from the boat.

In the pre-dawn hours,

the silhouette looks
just like a cape fur seal.

Alright, josh, so you can't
take your eye off that decoy.

You've gotta keep the camera
focused on it.

Okay.

The shark hits it,
it's gonna be split-seconds.

Lightning strike.
You're gonna see a splash,

and then that's
literally gonna be it.

Then I can sell it
for huge money and retire.

We slowly circle seal island,

attempting to lure a great white
to our decoy.

As the old showbiz saying goes,

never work with children
or animals.

It turns out sharks
don't breach on command.

Nature, as ever,
is unpredictable.

Maybe we should throw some
barbecue sauce on that thing.

[ chuckles ]

I'm begging you,
if there was ever a moment...

♪

oh, wow.

What?

Shark out there?

With our cameras all focused
on the decoy,

we nearly miss the real thing.

In a split second,
the live seal is toast.

Those seals are freaking out.

Blood is literally
in the water,

and the great whites
are circling.

We loop around for another
pass to see

if lightning will strike twice.

It's gonna
happen again, eh?

Okay, so...

Oh!
Oh, breach!

Unbelievable!

Gates: I'm in mossel bay,
south africa,

getting my first glimpse
of the great white shark

to see if it had
a competitive edge

over a monster shark
of the past -- the megalodon.

We're towing a seal decoy
to entice these super predators

to demonstrate
their ambush attack strategy,

the lightning-fast
aerial breach.

Okay, so...

Towner: Oh!

Oh!
Unbelievable!

Rocketing from the depths
to surprise their prey,

great whites have been seen
leaping 10 feet in the air.

Did you get it?
That one, I got.

But if you're a seal,
it's not such a pretty picture.

The impact of a great white
breach attack

has been measured at a force
of nearly 30 gs,

comparable to being hit
by a car.

Oh.
Breach!

Oh!

Right out of the water!

Oh, my god!

The breach attack
allows great whites

to sneak up
on their prey

and deliver a death blow
in mere seconds.

Oh!
Breach!

Oh, ho ho!
Oh!

That was completely
out of the water.

♪

it's terrifying, really.

You realize not just the power
that they have,

but the accuracy.

Yeah, the great white is
an ambush hunter to its core.

That's astounding.

Oh, there's a tooth.
Look at that!

Unbelievable!

There's literally a tooth
stuck in the decoy.

And, look at this.
This whole chunk missing.

Could the meg have hunted
like this?

While we know that the sort
of advantage

that a white shark has on it is
that it is smaller, it's agile,

and it's able
to accelerate on a dime,

I don't think they would
have been as efficient

as white sharks.

The sheer size and weight
of a meg suggests

it was not well-equipped
to ambush its prey.

And even if it could breach,

expending that much energy
on a single seal

may not have been worth it.

It is estimated that
the meg had to eat

2,500 pounds of food a day --

that's 10 full-grown
cape fur seals.

The great white,
on the other hand,

can survive on
just one seal a week.

Let's see what we got here.

Wow.
Absolutely perfect.

So that's an upper tooth.

So the top teeth of white sharks
are the cutters,

the bottom teeth
are the pinners.

For our second experiment,

we're testing
the cutting ability

of a megalodon tooth
versus a great white tooth

using raw steak.

I was hoping for, like,
a nice medium-rare.

But alright, so meg tooth,
here we go.

Alright, the meg tooth cuts,
but actually not all that deep.

And not easily.
Yeah, it looks like

you're really having to work at
that, too.

And so great white tooth,
here we go.

Same pressure, same motion.

Whoa.
It's amazing.

It slices right through it.

Super sharp,
like a razor blade.

The great white tooth is really,
really effective at cutting.

Absolutely.

How much would you expect to pay
for a shark tooth like this?

Get yourself a great white
shark tooth.

$59.95?
$49.95?

Clear out
your steak knifes.

If you call right now.

If you call right now.

Two easy installments

of $9.95.

Get your credit cards ready,

because the choice
is crystal clear.

Even in its prime,
this megalodon tooth

lacked the finely serrated edges
of a great white tooth.

Alright, advantage
great white.

Now, can we get these things
grilled up or what?

We got a hibachi out here?

For our next test,
alison takes the helm

while her associate,
dr. Enrico gennari,

introduces me
to his brand-new toy,

designed to test the speed
of a great white.

This is robo-seal.

This looks like something
batman would own.

Yeah, here we want to be able
to see the real speed

of the shark on a chase.

How fast can this boat go?

This can go up to 50 miles
per hour in a split second.

What do you have in here?
You got a v-8 in this thing?

It's a seal on steroids.

Our goal is to lure
a great white shark

as close to robo-seal
as possible,

then take off
and try to get him to follow,

mimicking the top speed
of a seal,

about 25 miles per hour.

Alright, enrico, let's talk
about pattern of movement here.

What should I be doing?

This is the kill zone.

So it's zigzagging.

I am a seal.

Be one with the seal.

You're doing perfect.

Have you been
a seal before?

Played a lot of video games
growing up.

Yeah, it's good.
Yeah, I can see it.

As soon as we see
the shark,

you'll have a split second
to accelerate.

I didn't know that shark
research could be this much fun.

I feel like
it's christmas morning.

Shark on your right!

Look, look.

As soon as the shark appears,
I gun it.

♪

♪

ooh!
Oh, [bleep]!

Holy moly!

Robo-seal!

It's gone!

Robo-seal!

♪

♪

robo-seal, no!

♪

[ splash ]

oh. He's up!

Oh, here we go.
Get closer and closer.

Okay, got you.

Okay, we got it?

Oh, robo-seal, baby,
what happened?

It bit right into it.

Look at all these teeth marks.

What this really shows
is that these seals --

and, unfortunately, robo-seal --
they don't stand a chance.

Experts estimate
that the top speed of the meg

was a sluggish
15 miles per hour.

Unlike the great white,

the meg simply wasn't fast
enough to catch a seal

traveling at top speed.

Robo-seal, rest in pieces.

It was a good robo-seal.

But before we can prep
our next experiment,

this shark decides
he's gonna need a bigger boat.

Whoa.

Bit the prop.

I've seen this movie.

I know what happens now.

Now it's gonna get us
one by one.

Does it have preference
for who it takes first or...

Yes, the biggest ass-[bleep]
goes first.

I'm gone.

The only person who's gonna
survive is the virgin.

Aidan.

[ laughter ]

our first three experiments
suggest

that the great white
was a faster

and more efficient
seal-hunter than the meg.

Now we're getting up
close and personal

to test
the great white's agility

and see how they move
in the water.

It's eerily silent.

♪

♪

♪

whoo, hoo-hoo! Hey, josh, was
that close enough for you?

Two sharks, two sharks!

Gates: There's nothing that can
describe the sensation

of seeing a 15-foot,
2,000-pound great white rocket

through the water
and turn on a dime.

Imagine a school bus
coming at you at top speed.

Oh, and the bus has hundreds
of razor-sharp teeth.

♪

♪

shark on your right!
Right -- look, look!

Look at it, look at it!

Boy, careful on your --
look out!

♪

whoa!
It's on the cage right here!

She's on top of the cage!

♪

gates: I'm about to
get in the water

with a high-octane apex
predator, the mako shark.

But first, tristan gives me
a safety lesson

that doesn't exactly
boost my confidence.

These sharks are
very inquisitive.

They're kind of
touchy-feely.

They'll sometimes
stop in front of you.

If they do that,
just guide it away.

Like, with my hand?

Yeah,
just push it away.

Like, shark kung fu
is what you're describing?

Push -- just guide it away.
Just guide it away.

Just put your arm up to the
shark's mouth and guide it away.

Well, just, you know...

No, that sounds like
great advice.

Just put my hand right up near
it and punch it in the face.

Give it a judo chop.

Just kind of
guide it away.

I now have my yellow belt
in shark fu

thanks to mr. Miyagi.

♪

gennari: Shark on your right.

Gates: I'm off the southern tip
of africa

diving with
great white sharks

to see if
their remarkable agility

could have helped them
out-compete

the megalodon for food,
leading to its extinction.

Shark on your right, right!
Look, look!

We're surrounded by nature's
most-feared predator,

and one of them is a little
too close for comfort.

Gennari: Look out.

Whoa, it's on the cage
right here!

She's on top of the cage!

♪

♪

josh, are you alright?
Are you alright?

The shark was right on top.

Was he close enough
for you guys?

[ laughs ]

gates: Trapped in a cage
beneath an angry shark

was definitely unexpected.

But behind the bars,
alison and I are treated

to a display of pure
underwater agility.

♪

josh, big shark circling.

Whoa!

Shark in front of you.

And it's a bigger one.

♪

shark on your right,
look on your right.

♪

♪

♪

gates: I'd like to stay down
here for hours,

but with our air running low,
alison and I have to surface.

You can't fully appreciate
just how agile

they are
until you're in the water,

because we had one
that passed us,

and then immediately,
it was facing us again.

Exactly.
We think of things

that approach
the size of a meg,

things like whales,
they're not really known

for their fast cornering,
you know?

Yeah, large body sizes, it would
be difficult to do that, right?

Yes. Really being down there
does help put it all together,

because you see firsthand
that there is an efficiency

to these great whites
that feels kind of unparalleled.

They really are
just so nimble.

And when it comes
to attacking prey,

it's just hard to imagine

something being more effective
than a great white.

These sharks have
really refined

and embodied the agility
and power to take on the prey

that probably a large
megalodon would not be able to.

So what do you think?

Did great white out-compete
the meg?

I think a lot of the evidence
that we've collected to date

is looking favorable that
we certainly know white sharks

have a lot of competitive
advantages over megs.

But with improving technology,
I think in the future,

the science is
only gonna get clearer.

Thank you so much
for taking me out here today.

3.6 million years ago,
the megalodon,

the largest shark ever to roam
the earth's oceans,

mysteriously vanished.

But it left behind a trail
of clues, fossilized teeth,

allowing scientists to learn
what this 60-foot monster shark

looked like, what it ate,
and how it may have met its end.

Fossil records indicate

that around
four million years ago,

the whale population,
the meg's primary food source,

began to decline.

Forced to feed on
smaller prey like seals,

the meg was now
in direct competition

with another apex predator,
the great white.

This battle for survival
favored the faster,

more agile shark.

Adapted to taking down
huge whales,

the massive meg simply couldn't
compete with a seal specialist.

In the case of the megalodon,

the evidence seems to suggest
being bigger wasn't better.

Should we swim in or what?

[ laughs ]

no, let's
take the boat back.

Let's...

Let's take the boat back.

♪