Outline
Circulating report claims that a giant prehistoric shark from a species that was thought to be extinct for 20 million years has been caught off the coast of Pakistan. The report features an image supposedly depicting the monster shark.
Brief Analysis
The claims in the report are nonsense. No giant prehistoric shark has been caught off Pakistan, or anywhere else. The photograph depicts a very large but otherwise normal Great White Shark caught off the coast of South Africa in 2009. The report comes from the fake-news website World News Daily Report, which claims to be satirical. Nothing published on the site should be taken seriously.
Example
15-Ton Prehistoric Shark Captured Off Coast Of Pakistan
Karachi | A giant prehistoric shark previously thought to be extinct for more than 20 million years has been captured by local fishermen off the coast of Pakistan, reports the Islamabad Herald this morning.
Detailed Analysis
According to a report currently circulating via social media, fishermen off Pakistan have caught a giant prehistoric shark. The report claims that the 15 ton, 10.6 meter monster may be a megalodon, a species of shark that scientists believed had been extinct for millions of years.
The report features a photograph that supposedly depicts the monstrous shark.
However, the claims in the report are fanciful nonsense. No prehistoric shark has been captured near Pakistan, or anywhere else.
The report comes from the fake-news website World News Daily Report, which describes itself as satirical. The site includes the following disclaimer:
World News Daily Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within worldnewsdailyreport.com are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental, except for all references to politicians and/or celebrities, in which case they are based on real people, but still based almost entirely in fiction.
Nothing published on the site should be taken seriously.
The image featured in the report depicts a very large – but otherwise ordinary – Great White Shark caught off the coast of South Africa in 2009. The shark was 4.3 meters long and weighed in at around 700 kilos. Certainly a formidable beast, but a far cry from the 10.6-meter, 10-ton creature described in the fake article.
The report also includes a photograph of a huge tooth that it claims came from the captured sea creature. But, in fact, the image shows a fossilised megalodon tooth found in the Atacama Desert, Chile. The picture was sourced from Wikimedia Commons.
Original Source : https://www.hoax-slayer.net/fake-news-prehistoric-shark-captured-off-pakistan/