A petrified tooth the size of a human hand that was unearthed 10,000 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean is thought to have belonged to a megalodon shark.
A large tooth that likely belonged to a megalodon shark was found by explorers 10,000 feet beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean
To support their conviction that the tooth belonged to the terrifying shark that prowled the Earth millions of years ago, the maritime explorers who discovered it are running more testing.
It was not only the biggest fish ever, but also the biggest shark in history. Megalodon literally translates as "large tooth."
The discovery was made during an expedition by the Ocean Exploration Trust to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, which spans over 495,000 square miles in the center of the Pacific.
Besides being the largest shark in the world, it was also one of the biggest fish to ever exist. The word megalodon itself means 'large tooth'
“Researchers discovered this enormous shark tooth while investigating nodule samples for their mission to Johnston Atoll with the Pacific Islands: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service”, they announced on the trust's Facebook page.
“We think the iconic extinct megalodon owned it, but only time (and additional scientific testing) will tell!”
The enormous megalodon shark, which served as the basis for the 2018 movie "The Meg," is thought to have grown up to 65 feet long and had teeth that were 7 inches long, or as long as an adult's hand.
The sea creature's earliest fossils date to 20 million years ago.
The shark is believed to have gorged on whales, huge fish, and other sharks. Its jaws were lined with 276 teeth.
According to Newsweek, Jack Cooper, a paleobiology expert at Swansea University in the U.K., the enormous sharks likely required as many as 98,000 calories per day to maintain their size.
Jack Cooper, a researcher in paleobiology at Swansea University in the U.K., told Newsweek that the gigantic sharks likely needed to eat as much as 98,000 calories per day to sustain their size
Its estimated jaw size is 9 feet long and 11 feet wide, which is big enough to simultaneously consume two adults.
Based solely on its size and serrations, the tooth "very much looks like a megalodon tooth to me," Cooper said.
“To my knowledge, this is the first tooth discovered in the region, or at the very least, the first one that has been publicly reported. If that's the case, it means that the megalodon's range is significantly wider than previously believed.”
Megalodon fossils have been found in far-flung parts of the world, but there have been more sightings near North and South Carolina, Baja California, Maryland and Peru, according to researchers
Although Megalodon remains have been discovered in remote locations around the globe, experts believe that sightings of the dinosaur have increased in North and South Carolina, Baja California, Maryland, and Peru.
If you compare this site to the typically coastal settings where megalodon teeth are discovered, you can see how remote and far out in the water it is. The shark may have been traveling across the ocean when it lost that tooth, according to what this indicates to me, said Cooper.
