A North Carolina couple has found a megalodon tooth while strolling on the beach. The find adds to the many megalodon teeth discoveries all over the world.
Discovery On The Beach
On Aug. 14, couple Sydney Williams and Brian Piccirilli were on their usual morning walk on Wrightsville Beach when they stumbled upon an incredible find in the form of a megalodon tooth that had washed up ashore. This was the first time that the couple found something quite important on their walks, so they were excited. They immediately called their parents about it and showed it to their peers at work.
The tooth was later confirmed to be a megalodon tooth by their friend, Audrey Longtin, who works at a cafe that has quite a wide collection of shark teeth, including megalodon teeth. According to Longtin, it is rather easy to determine a megalodon tooth as they are quite big. In this instance, the tooth that the couple found is said to be 4 inches long.
The couple plans to keep the tooth on display in their home so as to show their family and friends.
A post shared by Whats Up Wilmington (@whatsupwilmington) on Aug 14, 2018 at 7:22am PDT
This is not the first time that megalodon teeth were discovered in North Carolina. Evidently, in 2015, beachgoers discovered “record amounts” of megalodon teeth washed ashore, likely because of Hurricane Joaquin that caused heavy rains, strong winds, and high tides along the East Coast.
The Megalodon
The megalodon is the largest extinct shark ever documented, and one of the largest fish recorded. Its name actually means “giant tooth,” which makes sense as the largest megalodon tooth discovered so far measures around 7 inches in length or three times larger than a great white shark’s.
In terms of size, it is not yet completely clear how large megalodons actually were. Based on the size of the predator’s teeth, some experts believe that the megalodon could grow up to a maximum of 60 feet, while others believe it could grow even larger at 80 feet. For comparison, the great white shark can grow up to 20 feet while whale sharks can grow up to 32 feet long.
Interestingly, megalodon teeth have actually been found in many parts of the world, from New Zealand and Denmark to Japan, India, and Croatia. In fact, in 2016, a man in Suffolk even found over 80 megalodon teeth in a river in a single day.
According to experts, this shows that the megalodon was likely widespread in distribution, although it is also possible that this is because the waters were warmer and the continents were a little closer together at the time when the prehistoric shark lived.
