"Sharks haven't significantly evolved in appearance in 350 million years" is therefore based on reconstructions made under the assumption that the old sharks mostly looked like current sharks, which may or may not be true.

Though we can get a surprising amount of information that way, for example one change is that their jaws used be more at the end of their snout instead of more underslung like today, like so:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-technologies-reveal-strange-jaws-prehistoric-sharks-180977396

You'll note the Goblin Shark still has hints of that design.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I made sure to say barely instead of not at all, but you're right, there was certainly some evolution happening

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Yeah, thankfully Megalodon isn't cruising around anymore. Though that might have delayed European expansion until they had metal clad vessels....

[–] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 5 points 1 year ago

That sounds like a fun story, like a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies but instead it's Master and Commander and Megalodon.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Can we even know for sure that Carcharocles Megalodon is in fact excinct?

[–] cows_are_underrated@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can't prove the non existence, but you can be very sure about some things. Megalodon lived near the surface, because it liked warm water(AFAIK), so it's likely that if it wouldn't be extinct there's a high chance that we would notice it, since Megalodon was kinda big.

[–] miss_brainfart@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah okay, seems plausible then. It's more fun to believe otherwise though, not gonna lie. After all, there's still so much we don't know about our oceans.

[–] ssfckdt@mastodon.cloud 1 points 1 year ago

I just saw one the other day at the 7-11