Beachgoers in North Carolina have been finding ancient surprises on their walks along the shore: 6-inch-long fossilized teeth from enormous sharks that swam the oceans up to 15 million years ago.
The specimens have been found in North Topsail Beach and Surf City, local NBC affiliate WITN reports. Experts believe they were recently uncovered from under the ocean floor after storms hit the area.
The teeth, large enough to cover an adult’s entire palm, hint at the size of the animal they’re from: using estimations based on the tooth-to-body length ratio of modern sharks, experts believe these 6-inch-long teeth would come from a 60-foot-long extinct Megalodon shark.
[WITN]
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