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| The Megalodon Part 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Above we have a replica of Meg jaws in the New York Natural History Museum and right some assorted juvenile Meg teeth from Bone Valley, Florida. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Megalodon, Carcharocles Megalodon, or just Meg for short, was a giant prehistoric shark that lived around 20 MYA to 2 MYA. It may have reached 60 feet in length and weighed 50 tons. It lived mainly in warm waters, with most of the teeth coming from North and South America and tropical water. It had very large triangular teeth with adult teeth measuring from 4 inches to 7 inches. The teeth are not rare but are very popular to collect. Most teeth are black from the tannin in the water but they may be all colours. Teeth in some North American rivers are sometimes brown or red and teeth from the Bone Valley phosphate mines are often white due to the phosphate in the sediment. Meg teeth have serrations but they are less coarse than great white teeth. Adult Meg teeth do not have cusps ( tooth-like projections on the side of the enamel where it joins the crown ). Earlier juvenile Meg teeth have cusps but later juvenile teeth do not. Whale bones are often found with bite marks from attacks by Megs. Some examples are shown below. |
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| The pictures above show some whale bones with bite marks, presumably from Megs or similar large sharks. The tooth above is one of the largest ever measured, 7 1/4 inches. Below is a large 5.5 x 4.5 inch wide Meg tooth from North Carolina. It has a rare red colour. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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