Hello all,
This is an interest of mine that I have not yet brought up on the forum. It's kind of a geeky quirk of mine but I collect fossil shark teeth. I thought I would post some pics of a shark tooth that was once the killing tool of the largest shark that ever lived (and arguably the largest marine predator that ever lived): the Megalodon!
This tooth is from
Carcharocles megalodon (the specific epithet literally means "giant tooth"). Scientists argue over the exact measurements that this elasmobranch attained, however, the range seems to be between 50 and 100 feet (15.24 - 30.48 m) long! This is about three to five times larger than the modern Great White Shark.
Carcharocles megalodon was the supreme predator in the oceans from roughly 25 to 1.6 million years ago, during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs.
This particular tooth (just short of 5 inches) has been carbon-dated and is approximately 3-7 million years old. It is from the Hawthorne Formation - Morgan River, South Carolina.
You can still cut yourself on the serrations!
Just imagine what kind of beasts this tooth was slicing through 5 million years ago...
Cheers,
Ryan