"Instant Intuition Upon Seeing Giant Teeth"... British Girl Finds Teeth of Mysterious Creature That Swallowed Whale

Teeth of Megalodon Surviving 23 Million Years Ago

A 12-year-old girl discovered a tooth of the giant shark 'Megalodon,' known as the largest fish on Earth, on a beach.

According to the British daily Daily Mail, Sydney Root found a Megalodon tooth, which lived about 23 million years ago, on a beach in Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex. Sydney and her aunt, Sophie Princeton (29), who have a hobby of searching for shark teeth on beaches in the area, immediately recognized that the fossil belonged to a Megalodon.

A 12-year-old girl from the UK discovered a tooth of the Megalodon, known as the largest fish on Earth, on a beach.
Photo by Daily Mail

Princeton stated, "The day after part of the cliff collapsed, this huge tooth was lying on the beach floor." She added that her niece Sydney instinctively knew it was a Megalodon tooth as soon as she saw it. Princeton said, "We will make a frame with shark teeth together with my niece."

The fossil they revealed is triangular in shape and about the size of an adult's palm. The media reported that the size of the fossil indicates the size of the Megalodon.

A scene from the movie 'Megalodon'. [Photo by 'Megalodon' Naver Movie]

The Megalodon reached a maximum length of nearly 20 meters and weighed up to 100 tons. The name Megalodon literally means 'big (Megal) tooth (odon),' and it had about 280 teeth.

Its biting force is known to be ten times that of the great white shark, and it is said to have preyed on whales and great white sharks. In fact, researchers have found Megalodon tooth marks on fossils of whales that lived around the same time as the Megalodon.

Archaeologists regard the Megalodon as the top predator of the Cenozoic seas. However, this powerful jaw and enormous Megalodon became extinct about 3.6 million years ago.

Researchers speculate that the extinction of the Megalodon was due to changes in the behavior patterns of whales, its main prey, caused by the onset of the Ice Age. The emergence of new predators like ancient killer whales, which led to competition for food, is also pointed out as a cause of extinction, but the exact reason has not yet been determined.