Dr. Jack Cooper

Exciting! Looking forward to it! 🦈

Thanks for your kind words! 😁 I have to thank all the scientists who continue to publish cool work that catches my eye like this; & I hope to do plenty more this year. As well as some other shark & Palaeo writings of mine currently in production, hoping to announce soon 😉

Just how far north was megalodon’s range? — Dr. Jack A. Cooper Anybody who has ever worked on megalodon knows that it lived in oceans virtually all over the world. Yet even a cosmopolitan distribution has limits. A recent study describing the first megalodon teet...

I peer reviewed all papers involved in this debate and you can read about the whole tale, and my thoughts on the matter, on my website now:

www.drjackacooper.com/writing/just... 🦈

Many thanks to Louis-Philippe Bateman for his correspondence! (5/5) 🦈

But there's a problem. This tooth was never illustrated, its origin is questionable & it has never been found in a public repository.

Without the data being accessible, we can't really take this ghost tooth at face value, as detailed in a response (4/5)

doi.org/10.1139/cjes...

However, another researcher (Greenfield 2026) disagreed & argued that a 1910 article reported a megalodon tooth from the Arctic; a finding that would hugely extend megalodon's range (3/5)

doi.org/10.1139/cjes...

The first Otodus megalodon remains from Canada and their predicted range limit Otodus megalodon (Agassiz, 1835) is an extinct species of giant lamniform shark known from Neogene deposits around the world. Despite having been found decades ago, Canadian specimens of O. megalodon ...

A recent study describing Canadian megalodon teeth made a case for the northernmost range of megalodon being in Denmark, with temperature limiting the giant shark's range.

This was published in 2024 in a paper I peer reviewed at the time (2/5)

doi.org/10.1139/cjes...

Just how far north was megalodon’s range? — Dr. Jack A. Cooper Anybody who has ever worked on megalodon knows that it lived in oceans virtually all over the world. Yet even a cosmopolitan distribution has limits. A recent study describing the first megalodon teet...

🚨New Website blog 🚨

My first since that mega-essay on Shark Whisperer. But we're not talking about awful pseudo-scientific documentaries this time. Instead, here's a rather niche new debate in the world of #megalodon science.

www.drjackacooper.com/writing/just... 🦈 (1/5)

Elon Musk was itching to go to Epstein’s parties, and excited about all the ‘girls’ that would be there, *five years* after Epstein pleaded guilty to *procuring a child for prostitution*. What on earth did he think went on at these parties?

The President shit himself on live TV. Melania bombed. The Epstein files are sending shockwaves through the Alt Right. Liam and his dad are back home. A Texas district that was DEEP red for 35 years flipped blue. Pretti's killers have been identified.

Small wins, but you can feel the change coming.

A flyer for a fish biomechanics course at the Friday Harbor Labs this summer.

Every other summer we run a fish biomechanics course at Friday Harbor Labs. It is an awesome opportunity to learn the tools of biovisualization while experiencing the rich fish diversity of the Salish Sea. Come join us!
🧪

The Iberian fossil record of †Otodus megalodon rejects Mediterranean dwarfism and supports nursery use Abstract. †Otodus megalodon, the largest known macropredatory shark, was globally distributed from the Miocene to Pliocene, yet most ecological and palaeob

New #megalodon paper by Herraiz et al!

Using a huge dataset of meg teeth from Spain & Portugal, this work reaffirms support for a previously identified Spanish nursery area, rejecting a hypothesis of Mediterranean-wide insular dwarfism.

Many congrats to the authors! 🦈
doi.org/10.1098/rsbl...

The prehistoric shark found in a suburban town in Scotland The fossil was so complete experts could see remains of the last meal it ate, 330 million years after it died.

The prehistoric shark found in a suburban town in Scotland

Yes, this article is about the work of my colleagues at @pimientogroup.bsky.social, led by the brilliant @kristinakocakova.bsky.social.

Thanks for highlighting it Mark! 🦈

Very, very cool work by @kristinakocakova.bsky.social et al just published!

If you’ve ever wondered about how sharks & rays have diversified over millions of years, when exactly they’ve experienced extinctions & if age plays a role in extinction risk: then this is the shark paper for you!

🦈🦈🦈

All good. Indeed, Netflix does seem to have an issue with misinformation in some of its programs. In my article (linked in the thread), I make this very point & criticise another doc of theirs on the disappearance of MH370, which was just awful conspiracy nonsense 😅

Thanks for reading!

I would personally refrain from using some of those terms as it borders on some of the more unprofessional comments Ramsey gets thrown at her. But at the same time, the documentary is extremely unserious & should be criticised for all the reasons said in my article 😅🦈

Mind you, Jeff Wise is the same guy known for spreading at least one nonsensical conspiracy theory about the disappearance of MH370 on platforms like Netflix (something I found when researching a different bad Netflix doc) so would like to know which "scientists" he's referring to in this slop.

Had a fantastic experience last week at #2025SVP! Terrific talks & posters, enthralling conversations with peers; including some I’ve never met or haven’t seen in years. And of course, a great chance to spend time with the old lab team promoting our collective shark research! 🦈

Yes but it becomes a problem when, like Ramsey, they openly lie about basic scientific facts & peddle total nonsense like ‘I have a special connection to sharks’. That doesn’t help sharks effectively.

I’m all for shark-positive media, it’s desperately needed, but it’s got to be done responsibly.

So, from my work, ‘shark influencers’ tend to be idiots getting up close, recklessly harassing sharks while pretending to be conservationists. Ramsey just also lies about what causes shark declines.

‘Shark hunters’ definitely bad though as they reinforce a lack of empathy for threatened animals.

Thing is, as much as I dislike ‘shark hunters’ like this guy: these individuals aren’t the major driver of overfishing: it’s unsustainable commercial fishing (factories on boats).

He’s also (I presume) not claiming to be the sole messiah of sharks like Ramsey is when she misinforms her followers.

I can’t say I’ve ever heard of ‘Mark the Shark’ so could you explain please?

Nonetheless, the reason Ramsey gets criticised is because she recklessly harasses sharks & misrepresents science & her role as a ‘conservationist’ to an enormous platform. As my article details rather painstakingly.

China’s CO2 emissions have been flat or falling for past 18 months, analysis finds World’s biggest polluter on track to hit peak emissions target early but miss goal for cutting carbon intensity

This a big deal: "China’s carbon dioxide emissions have been flat or falling for 18 months"

China's economy has grown by ~5% in the last year, so this comprehensively debunks the idea (again) that emissions are tied to growth. So yes, faster progress needed, but this is how you turn the corner.

Shark Whisperer is lying to you: a look into the harmful effects of Ocean Ramsey and shark influencers — Dr. Jack A. Cooper Ocean Ramsey is undoubtedly one of the most well-known “shark influencers”, whose videos show her free diving and touching wild great white and tiger sharks as she swims right up alongside them. Those...

Read the blog here on my website: www.drjackacooper.com/writing/shar...

It’s the biggest I’ve ever done for my tiny little portfolio so I appreciate any & all readers.

I hope producers of shark documentaries will do better next time.

Fin! 🦈 (9/9)

A massive thank you to my 4 scientific experts that provided quotes and/or fact checked this huge piece: @whysharksmatter.bsky.social; @melissacmarquez.bsky.social; @kjparton.bsky.social & Mckenzie Margarethe.

It was a privilege to have input from some of the biggest marine SciComm voices (8/9)

Media like this can powerful tools for aiding shark conservation, but not if they mislead their audiences.

Shark Whisperer is far from the only bad shark documentary spreading misinformation, but it wound me up enough to the point that I simply had to write about it (7/9)

Ultimately, while part of me does believe that Ramsey genuinely cares about sharks; this whole film is little more than vanity.

Researching Ramsey’s activities & online harassment of critics has convinced me that this is more about one person promoting a brand than it is about helping sharks (6/9)

It even ignores that Ramsey has never shared any data with scientists, data that could potentially be used to inform conservation policy.

Perhaps most egregiously, it omits the very real harm both human & shark suffer when idiotic influencers are hurt trying to get selfies with sharks (5/9)

The film blames shark declines solely on shark finning, which science shows is simply not the biggest driver of shark losses – unsustainable overfishing is.

It also overinflates Ramsey’s role in a Hawaiian shark fishing bill, & its impact on shark conservation, to the point of lying (4/9)

The documentary instead rather laughably portrays Ramsey as this “chosen one” with a “connection” to the sharks just going about their day while she harasses them.

Moreover, the film consistently misleads its audience about scientific facts & Ramsey’s role in shark conservation… (3/9)