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Massive Megalodon teeth washing up on shores of United States

 

Megalodon tooth found in 1837. (Flickr/Géry Parent)
Megalodon tooth found in 1837. (Flickr/Géry Parent)

Over the last few weeks, giant shark teeth of enormous proportions have been washing up on shores of North Carolina. The teeth measure up to an unbelievable six inches long – about the size of an human adult’s hand.

What makes these finds a bit unnerving is that these teeth we know belong to a monster that dwarfs even supersized versions of the Great White Shark. Called Carcharodon Megalodon, they are the largest ocean predator to have ever lived. Luckily for us, scientists say this nightmarish creature has been long extinct.

Megalodon ruled the world’s oceans starting 16 million years ago. With a body the size of a city bus and a gaping mouth large enough to swallow a Volkswagen Beetle, there was no match for it. Jaws filled with massive knife-like teeth, this leviathan terrorised the prehistoric seas, hunting down even full-sized adult whales. Weighing up to 30 times more than their modern descendants, the Great Whites, the Megalodon’s biting force is estimated to have been up to 40,000 pounds, powerful enough to crush a car. In comparison, the fearsome dinosaur Tyranosaurus Rex chomped down on its prey with less than 7,000 pounds of force. With this much power, palaeontologists think that Megalodon would have been able to easily disable its whale prey by simply biting off their entire flippers and tails.

Mysteriously, like many prehistoric giants before, the world’s largest carnivorous fish vanished forever about 2.5 million years ago. Scientists believe they went extinct because of food shortage during the ice age. Megalodon hunted in warmer shallow waters, and when the whales migrated towards the colder waters, Megalodons could not adapt and eventually starved.    

Long time no see

But why are their frightening teeth turning up on our beaches now? With all the storms recently battering the eastern shores of the United States, the seabeds where these fossils have been embedded for eons are being ripped up and tossed onto land.

It turns out though that Megalodon teeth are not all that uncommon in certain parts of the world. The entire southeastern U.S. coastline from North Carolina to Florida, happens to sit on vast fossil-rich deposits that used to be part of a prehistoric shallow seabed that now offers all kinds of ancient treasures for beachcomers and collectors, from mammoth molars to giant shark teeth.

Even though science says it is extinct a much-maligned TV mockumentary in 2013 played on fantasies, recounting alleged sightings of a giant shark matching the description of a Megalodon. Despite being filled with fabricated evidence, the film was sophisticated enough that it fooled people into thinking that Megaladon is still alive in our waters today, chomping on boats and whales. The scientific community was outraged, particularly regarding the potential negative effects it might have on the much-needed support for shark conservation.

Despite being at the very top of the ocean food chain, Megalodon descendant the Great White Shark has had its numbers steadily declining for the past four decades, thanks in part to the fear instilled in millions by the 1975 summer blockbuster “Jaws.” Today’s global population of Great White Sharks is estimated to be standing around 3,500. If these numbers hold true, then the species is actually more threatened with extinction than tigers.

As a result, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has categorized the species as vulnerable. While there is much we don’t know about the ecology of Great Whites, the consensus is that their perilous state is most likely caused by over-fishing of immature individuals before they get a chance to reproduce.

For some people with a lot of imagination, its massive Megalodon ancestor is just too thrilling of a prospect to let go. Some hope that it still might lurk somewhere in the deep. However facts are facts, and there is no documented evidence of them being alive today. No film footage, no fresh teeth, and no unexplainable giant bite marks on whales from titanic battles.

Today, the only remains of this ultimate killing machine are their fossilized teeth, and scarred whale vertebrae serving testimony to their ferocity.