🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago eliminated roughly 75 percent of Earth’s species.
Molecular studies indicate that the megamouth shark’s lineage diverged from other modern sharks more than 100 million years ago. That places its evolutionary origins in the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs still dominated terrestrial ecosystems.
💥 Impact (click to read)
While cities, nations, and even entire mammal lineages have risen and fallen, this deep-sea shark lineage has persisted since a time when Tyrannosaurus rex had not yet evolved. Its survival spans asteroid impacts, mass extinctions, and continental shifts.
The megamouth is therefore not just a rare species but a surviving branch of an ancient evolutionary experiment. Each living individual represents a genetic time capsule from a world separated from ours by over 100 million years of planetary upheaval.
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