Beach Combers find Megaladon Teeth in N. Carolina

a reply to: intrptr

i'm trying to find an answer to your question as far as how they lived. this is the great white i pulled off wiki.

"The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the great white, white pointer, white shark, or white death, is a species of large lamniform shark which can be found in the coastal surface waters of all the major oceans. The great white shark is mainly known for its size, with mature individuals growing up to 6.1 m (20 ft) in length and more than 1,900 kg (4,200 lb) in weight.[3][4][5][6] Although some controversial reports have been published of great white sharks measuring over 7 m (23 ft) and 3,324 kg (7,328 lb) in weight.[7] This shark reaches its maturity around 15 years of age and was previously believed to have a life span of over 30 years. The true lifespan of great white sharks is far longer, now estimated to be as long as 70 years or more, making it one of the longest lived cartilaginous fish currently known.[8] Male great white sharks take 26 years to reach sexual maturity, while the females take 33 years to be ready to produce offspring."

as i pointed out and phage was able to answer in my tech absence.. lol. for now only the teeth and jaw bones have been recovered. but scientist have tried to go by the great whites body and theorize how the Megaladon might have looked. this is from wiki..


"Gottfried and colleagues further estimated the schematics of megalodon's entire skeleton.[6] To support the beast's dentition, its jaws would have been massive, stouter, and more strongly developed than those of the great white, which possesses a comparatively gracile dentition. The jaws would have given it a "pig-eyed" profile.[6] Its chondrocranium would have had a blockier and more robust appearance than the great white.[6] Its fins were proportional to its larger size.[6] Scrutiny of the partially preserved vertebral megalodon specimen from Belgium revealed that C. megalodon had a higher vertebral count than specimens of any known shark. Only the great white approached it".

Using the above characteristics, Gottfried and colleagues reconstructed the entire skeleton of C. megalodon, which was later put on display at the Calvert Marine Museum at Solomon's Island, Maryland in the United States.[6][26][42] This reconstruction is 11.5 metres (38 ft) long and represents a young individual. The team stresses that relative and proportional changes in megalodon skeletal features are ontogenetic in nature in comparison to that of great white, as they occur in great white sharks while growing.[6] Fossil remains of C. megalodon confirm that it had a heavily calcified skeleton while alive".

they are not sure how it really looked.

a reply to: smirkley

must have been a heck of a site.
also good to build walls with. and the Bahamas were built of Coral. So i can see why shells and shark teeth would be put to use too.

Ok, it's late i'm logging off till morning...

Feel free to contribute anything of actual content you can. good night ATS.

just a few weeks ago now.... I posted of a long ago beach find of a big, black, 5" Megalodon Shark tooth

the tooth was found on a Surfside Beach location in SC some +75 miles south of the Wilmington/Cape Fear area that is a known source of those large fossil teeth (a few people dive the river for these minor treasures)

the teeth usually show up After a storm or 'Nor-Easter blow.... the recent Carolina hurricane of 2015, AKA:" Flood-a-Cane", probably deposited the newly found teeth on those local NC beaches...

but in the next month or so, points south of Wilminton NC should have a moderately rare Megalodon Shark tooth wash up on some sandy beach, giving a thrill to the finder/beach comber (I found mine sometime between the summers of 1974-1976 when I daily beach walked as therapy...)





just a footnote...
those 24" perfectly formed megalodon teeth are most likely props/fakes... an actual fossilized tooth some +++10 million years old would not have blue and white tones... the local minerals that impregnate the cavities in the tooth to create the fossilization process would more than likely be sand color at best or murky black at the other end of the spectrum

A little off topic but I had to complain to someone. Last weekend I went for a swim at my favourite beach here in Australia and the lifeguards and flags were there but there were only two kids in the water near the shore. One lifeguard was standing on a surf ski and looking intently in the water as he paddled about. Another was on a jet-ski further out in the bay. I stayed in the water for about half an hour and got out because it was a bit cold and my wife refused to get in the water.
Next day everyone was saying how a great white had been spotted at that beach earlier on that day. You would think somebody at the beach could have told me before I went in the water!!! WTF! No wonder people were not swimming!

One thing I find impressive about megalodon teeth (besides their size) is how well the enamel lasts millions of years without any problems.

In most photos I have seen on the Internet the serrated edge of the enamel is not visible, but as you can see on this photo from the tooth I found some 40 years ago in Almada (Portugal), the edge is in perfect condition, and is very capable of cutting any thing.



PS: According to two methods of calculating the size of the shark, that tooth came from a shark between 12 and 13 metres long.

a reply to: Bigburgh

they are not sure how it really looked.

Or how old. They keep moving that goal post, it seems.

Thanks for that rundown. So the teeth are the only determining factor, but appear to be exactly the same, regardless of their respective era.

search

'Giga' whites,Alligators, dragon flies, fleas, cockroaches, porpoises and gorillas. Begs the question, are all fossils just big specimens of current animals> How come the great white hasn't adapted / evolved like other forms? How come it survived the epoch that destroyed the Dinos?

a reply to: St Udio

the teeth usually show up After a storm or 'Nor-Easter blow…. the recent Carolina hurricane of 2015, AKA:" Flood-a-Cane", probably deposited the newly found teeth on those local NC beaches…

Good time to take a metal detector with you for a walk. Thats when shipwrecks disgorge their treasure, too.

originally posted by: intrptr
Begs the question, are all fossils just big specimens of current animals

No, some, like horses, were much smaller.

Wow! What a cool find, your right that cutting edge is remarkably intact given its assumed age. One would think that the fine seration would be worn smooth in that span of time.



a reply to: ArMaP

I am surprised there is any sand left for a beach to find something on after our hurricane rain storm three weeks ago. The beach used to come in South Carolina all the way up to Columbia millions of years ago. Fossils can be found in creek beds, rock quarries, and by digging building foundations, etc....

a reply to: St Udio

Thanks, repost if you'd like. It was established by Phage on page 2 that it was a Fake or produced shark tooth.

a reply to: grumpy64

Wow, talk about the "What If" factor. I can see what you mean. Good thing you were safe after all.

Here's a link for the Great Whites speed. Note that a GR has a short burst speed of 25 MPH. I Max 2 MPH getting out of water. Or run on top like Jesus.

www.speedofanimals.com...

Doesn't mean you can enjoy the beach however.

Auto double post

a reply to: ArMaP

I was wondering a couple things about that myself. We still find teeth (still in Enamel form) in archaic human/animal skulls. When I started this thread, it was breaking news on the local news. So I thought how cool to bring it here.

I had tab after tabs trying to put this thread together.

So I even looked up to see if the tooth is a fossil or old enamel.... I was trying to find facts Not fiction. As far as I made out so far' even now. It is considered a Fossil ( just minerals in place of the Enamel ). I think on page 2 I posted about it.
Was hoping Phage would use the searching engine power of PHAAGLE to get me a definitive answer.

a reply to: intrptr

Teeth and Jaw bones.

a reply to: Bigburgh

I don't know if I understood what you wrote, but I can tell you that on those photos we see the main part of the tooth (brownish in the case of the photo I posted) is fossilize, while the enamel part is the original (probably with some material replaced by minerals, as the colour follows the general colour of the fossil) but, just by looking or touching it we can see that the enamel is not fossilized.

You may be able to see the difference in this photo I took this morning.

a reply to: ArMaP

Yes I was looking at photos. This one is very good.
What I was trying to figure out earlier is if the teeth were just hardened fossilized remains. Being of minerals only. Or if there was actual enamel left.

This photo you posted looks to me as if it is Enamel flaking off. This looks great. Thanks for posting this.


So we are on the same page. This tooth you have, looks like it's all Enamel. And no minerals.



Found this. But I don't have a tooth on hand to see for myself.

"There are a number of different ways one can determine if a shark tooth is a fossil or if it is modern. Color can be an indicator of age in some situations but not all the time. Modern shark teeth, both the crown and the root, are typically white in color. Fossil teeth are permineralized and are usually darker colored. There are instances where fossil teeth exhibit a white crown however the root is usually a darker grey or beige color. Another method for determining if a shark tooth is modern or fossil is by simply asking "Where was the tooth found?" If the tooth was found in a creek 50 miles from the nearest ocean, it is safe to assume that the tooth is a fossil. When you find a shark tooth at the beach, you may need to look at its color to figure out its age. Identifying the tooth to species may also help. While many of the species found in the southeast today have been around for 4-5 million years, some of the older teeth are extinct species no longer alive today."

Source.

www.flmnh.ufl.edu...

a reply to: Bigburgh

In the case of my tooth, the whole tooth (except the enamel) is mineralized (it's rock), with the same colour of the ground where I found it. I found it on a construction site they where they were going to build a building, some 10 metres below ground level, along with other fossils (mostly shells).

a reply to: ArMaP

What a find. Thanks for the help in your description. If you could answer this. Does it have a heavy weight to it like a stone?


The only thing I have is fossilized wood from Egypt. Only a 4 inch long piece. But it weighs more than a rock I found of the some size.