Obviousness is a critical element to patentability. In essence, even if the applicant can demonstrate patentable subject matter, utility and novelty, the patent will not issue if the invention is trivial.
While the earliest C. megalodon remains were reported from late Oligocene strata, around 28 million years old, a more reliable date for the origin of the species is the early Miocene, about 23 million years ago.
The Megamouth shark was discovered in 1976, when a U.S. Navy research vessel hauled up an adult male specimen off the coast of Hawaii near Oahu. The paper on the new species, published in 1983, described its discovery, preservation, and dissection: