Real-life Sharknado! Man is left baffled after a hammerhead shark falls from the SKY onto a golf course

Daily Mail​

10-06-2025

As everyday perils go, there are plenty of ways to get hurt.
From tripping up on a pavement to giving yourself a paper cut, there are countless accidents waiting to happen.
A shark falling from the sky likely isn't at the top of your list of things to look out for.
But – in scenes reminiscent of the film Sharknado – that's exactly what occurred at a disc golf course in South Carolina.
Remarkable photographs show a hammerhead shark after it plummeted from the heavens and landed at the Splinter City Disc Golf Course in Myrtle Beach.
The unusual event took place on May 18 near the 11th hole of the wooded course near the ocean.
'We couldn't believe it and kept asking ourselves, "Did that really just happen?" Jonathan Marlowe, who witnessed the event, told Garden & Gun magazine.
But rather than a tornado picking up the shark and dropping it from the sky – as depicted in the film – there is a slightly more logical explanation for the unusual incident.
While it is possible for waterspouts to suck up fish from the sea, in this instance an osprey was the culprit.
The bird of prey, known for being an excellent aquatic hunter, regularly dives into water from a significant height to catch fish with their sharp talons.
This one however, seems to have picked up a small hammerhead by mistake.
It's likely the osprey carried the shark at least half a mile (800 metres) from the ocean before losing its grip.
Mr Marlowe said he saw two crows chasing the osprey into a tree, where it dropped the hammerhead onto the ground below.
'It's not uncommon to see an osprey carrying something, but you take note because it's still really cool to see,' he said.
'I thought it would be a random fish.'
Experts say this 'mobbing' behaviour from crows isn't unusual, especially in the springtime, when the smaller birds team up for safety to chase potential predators away from their nesting sites or food sources.
Ospreys, known for being excellent aquatic hunters, regularly dive into water from a significant height to catch fish with their sharp talons (stock image)
According to the Myrtle Beach Disc Golf Facebook page the likes of snakes, alligators and raccoons are common sights on local courses.
The film Sharknado, which was released in 2013, depicts an unprecedented weather event off the coast of Mexico that rips out a ravenous river of sharks.
These man-eating fish are scooped up in tornadoes and transported to Los Angeles, where they become a deadly airborne threat.
Although no shark tornadoes have ever been reported in real life, fish, frogs, jellyfish and even - allegedly - alligators have been reportedly moved by waterspouts.
The extinct beast from beneath: Megalodon roamed the seas more than 3.6 million years ago
The megalodon, meaning big-tooth, lived between 23 and 3.6 million years ago.
O. megalodon is considered to be one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history and fossil remains suggest it grew up to 65 feet long.
It's thought the monster looked like a stockier version of today's much feared great white shark and weighed up to 100 tons.
Megalodon is recognizable due its huge vertebrae and teeth, which are triangular and measure almost eight inches in diagonal length.
Famed fossil hunter Vito 'Megalodon' Bertucci took almost 20 years to reconstruct a megalodon's jaw - largest ever assembled - which measures 11 feet across and is almost 9 feet tall.
The Megalodon's colossal mouth would have produced a brute force of 10.8 to 18.2 tons.
The ancient shark has been described as a super predator, because it could swim at high speeds and kill a wide variety of prey such as sea turtles and whales, quickly in its strong jaws.