Thousand years Quote by Peter Benchley
““Maybe. Maybe not. Look, the Latin name for this fish is Carcharodon carcharias, okay? The closest ancestor we can find for it is something called Carcharodon megalodon, a fish that existed maybe thirty or forty thousand years ago. We have fossil teeth from megalodon. They’re six inches long. That would put the fish at between eighty and a hundred feet. And the teeth are exactly like the teeth you see in great whites today. What I’m getting at is, suppose the two fish are really one species. What’s to say megalodon is really extinct? Why should it be?””
About This Quote
Source Film: Jaws, 1975
The speaker questions whether the great white shark might be a surviving megalodon, suggesting uncertainty about extinction.
In simple terms: Maybe the shark is a living megalodon.
Key Takeaway
Consider the unknowns in science.
Themes
uncertainty
science
extinction
Mood
curious
skeptical
Type
speculative
inquisitive
When to use this quote
- marine research
- documentary narration
- public education
- conservation policy
Key Concepts
evolutionary biology
species continuity
Questions to Reflect On
- What evidence would confirm a species' survival?
- How do we handle scientific uncertainty?
A Different Perspective
Extinction claims need robust evidence.
![“[Footnote:] Pliny the Elder described a Whale called "Balaena or Whirlpool, which is so long and broad as to take up more in length and breadth than two acres of ground." This brings up again the old question: Are the classics doomed? Our ancestors believed that four years of this sort of…” quote by Will Cuppy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/1c1/will-cuppy-7569_acres_footnote-pliny-the-elder-described-a-wha_84284.jpg)
