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This is a Megalodon tooth that was added to my shark tooth collection. It measures 6.34 inches and was discovered on Java Island, Indonesia.

I had been itching hard to be on the beach, so I slipped away to the bay Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving to find some fossils along the Calvert cliffs. I really want to beat my personal best megalodon tooth from Calvert which measures at 4” on the dot; I know that will be difficult so I’m really trying to go more often. (Spoiler: I don’t find my record breaker) Day 1: I really didn’t have time to go out on Saturday but I figured I could delay my responsibilities for a little and fight the wind to spend at max two hours on the beach. I arrived on the beach about 20min before sunrise and started searching with my flashlight and quickly found a nice little megalodon, a little beat up but hey, a meg is a meg. I continued on and found a heart breaker cetacean tooth, the crown much larger than most cetacean teeth I find here, but alas the crown was missing a chunk and the root spit in half and hollow. Before starting my walk back I found a handful of usual teeth from this beach, a few hemipristis and physogaleus and a thumb nail size posterior meg. As I get back to the beginning stretch of beach that I first searched with my flashlight, I found a beautiful epiphysis disk with a 1.8” diameter sitting right next to a 1.9” megalodon . Leaving the beach just over two hours of walking I got a surprising haul, definitely worth the trip. Day 2: I had more time to hit the beach on Sunday, so accompanied with my girlfriend we launched our kayaks for sunrise then landed to begin our search. Same as the day prior the waves were hitting the beach rapidly and the water was murky making it pretty impossible to search beneath the water, so most of our finds were right at the edge of the shell line or high up on the beach. We started by each finding a few large hemipristis teeth all measuring around 1.4” and a couple nice hastalis. My girlfriend found her second megalodon tooth measuring 1.5”, it was a bit beat up but for her second meg she was thrilled. I don’t often go out back to back and I remember why, I’m exhausted. None the less I’d do it again in a heartbeat if I got the time and the weather and tides want to cooperate. It was a great two trips even though I didn’t break my record, but that day will come! Thanks for reading y’all!

Found embedded in mud beside roots of a tree on a nature trail above chandler river SC. This was after things had dried out after a tropical storm. Tooth has been repaired as (it was found to be broken when extracted from the mud). Because of the telltale mark between root and blade leads me to believe it to be either megalodon, angustiden or chubitensis. But the very flat root shape, very triangular shape, thin blade lead me to also suspect large great white.

I always hear that they are very rare; but every year dealers set up at numerous fossil shows in the United States, with huge boxes full of giant Meg Teeth. Regardless, they sure aren't cheap!!!

I went out to a site that I haven't visited in a while, and it was a bust. Until. I was just getting ready to leave, and went back to a place that I had searched right at the beginning of the day and decided to search just a little more, and then I saw it, at first I thought it was just a fragment, but it turned out to be a complete posterior meg, and my largest one to date! It is always important to search twice, this find saved the day for me, and was a perfect end to the day.

I'm putting together an Otodus sp. transition set of well-matched (similar size and position) teeth, in the approximately 1.4-1.5" range. This is the second such set I've put together, but for my current project I'm looking to build a larger (in number) set that includes examples from as many different locations and time periods as I can, i.e., not just one O. obliquus, one O. angustidens, etc., but hopefully multiples of each representing different time periods and geographic locations for the chronospecies. I'm off to a pretty good start, but there are several locations and a few specific time ranges that I'm still after, and I anticipate that I'll be continuing to build this set for a while. As I've been working on this project, I thought it would be interesting to put together some photo montages of the teeth to illustrate the evolution of Otodus's cusplets and serrations, from O. obliquus to O. megalodon. I've seen similar images elsewhere but wanted to see what I could produce using teeth from my collection. Not all of the teeth shown below are from the set I'm building--I've also included images of teeth that are too large or small for the set but that fill in gaps and help illustrate the transitions.

Between 2020-23, two collectors who scuba dive for fossils throughout Florida and Georgia have recovered 5 chesapecten (including two paired valves) with morphological characteristics that signal a Miocene age. These characteristics include an acute byssal notch and a byssal fasciole that is strongly differentiated from the shell’s auricle in terms of sculpture and elevation. The largest of the adult shells also displays an active ctenolium. Additionally, one of the paired specimens displays significant gapes between valves when matched (the other pair was preserved as found by glue according to the collector and cannot be matched). These aforementioned traits are also emblatic of Miocene age for Chesapecten. These shells were recovered from the following areas in Georgia and Florida: Savannah River, Effingham County, Georgia (Collector 1) Specimen 1 (W = 108.0 mm) R valve L valve R valve - close up of byssal notch and fasciole (most of fasciole has been degraded) R valve - close up of ornamentation L valve - close up of ornamentation Profile Close up of matrix, gray sand Savannah River, Effingham County, Georgia (Collector 1) Specimen 2 (W = 101.6 mm) R valve R valve - interior R valve - close up of byssal notch and fasciole L valve - note barnacles are modern species, not fossilized L valve - interior L valve - close up of ornamentation on auricle Side profile of pair, showing gapes Front profile of pair, showing gapes Cumberland Island, Camden County Georgia (Collector 2) Specimen 3 (W = 114.3 mm) R valve, note encrustation is recent not fossilized R valve interior, thick shell apparent Close up of byssal notch and fasciole Close up of ctenolium, although modern encrustation makes it difficult to see what is going on in the ctenolium Close up of ornamentation St Mary’s River, Nassau County, Florida (Collector 2) Specimen 4 (W = 117.5 mm) R Valve R valve interior, active ctenolium and thick shell apparent Byssal notch and fasciole Close up of original sediment, note the olive and gray coloration Profile Suwanee River, Hamilton County, Florida (Collector 2) Specimen 5 (W = 69.9 mm) R valve, subadult specimen R valve interior, shell is thick for a subadult Unfortunately, stratigraphic data were not collected for these shells. However, among the Miocene strata from Coastal Georgia and NE Florida currently described in the literature, the Ebenezer Formation of Weems and Edwards (2001), of Upper Miocene (Tortonian age), appears to be the most suitable match based on the age of the Ebenezer and the characteristics of the shells found. The shells collected resemble Chesapecten middlesexensis of the Upper Miocene of Virginia and North Carolina. The Ebenezer was originally defined by Huddleston (1988) as a member of the Coosawhatchie Formation (Middle Miocene). Weems and Edwards later elevated it to formational rank based on differences in lithological and dinoflagellate composition compared to the rest of the Coosawhatchie. The Ebenezer formation consists of gray to olive-gray, fine- to medium-grained micaceous sand and stretches from South Carolina to NE Florida. Five mappable members are apparent and separable by distinct unconformities. The lower four members correspond to dinoflagellate zone DN 8, while the uppermost member corresponds to DN 9. Revision of the Ebenezer to Formational Rank from Weems and Edwards (2001) According to the dinoflagellate zonation of de Verteuil and Norris (1996), DN 8-9 aligns with the Little Cove Point Member (DN 8) and the Windmill Point Member (DN 9) of the St Mary’s Formation of Maryland and Virginia. Alignment of the Ebenezer to St Mary's Formation of MD and VA from Weems, Self-Trail and Edwards (2004) All specimens display similar characteristics which include an acute byssal notch, differentiated byssal fasciole, slightly inflated right valve, and a hinge size in adult specimens that is relatively small for adult chesapecten with the exception of Chesapecten covepointensis (DN 8 St Mary’s Formation) and in some cases Chesapecten santamaria (DN 9 St Mary’s Formation). Also, these shells could possibly be divided into two distinct variants although issues with preservation which appears to be somewhat better outside the Savannah River region may exaggerate these differences. Nevertheless, the Chesapecten collected outside of the Savannah River Region exhibit stronger, more raised ribs and have thicker, heavier shells compared to the specimens collected within the Savannah River region whose shells are thinner and ribs are lower and less pronounced. This is especially true of Specimen 1. Possibly that these variants originate from different members of the Ebenezer Formation. According to Weems and Edwards, “outside of the Savannah region, beds no older than dinoflagellate zone DN 9 occur”. This suggests that the shells collected outside of the Savannah River Region likely belong to Bed 5 of the Ebenezer Formation. Figure 3 of Weems and Edwards (2001) [shown below] suggests that someone scuba diving for fossils in the Savannah River is likely to collect in Bed 4. Therefore, it is possible that the Chesapecten specimens recovered from the Savannah River belong to Bed 4 of the Ebenezer Formation. This stratigraphic information aligns with the observed morphological differences among the specimens and tentatively supports the significance of these variations. Needless to say, more specimens are needed to confirm. Lateral Gradation of the Ebenezer from Georgia to Florida - Fig. 3 from Weems and Edwards (2001) Ward (1992) has remarked that the period between Chesapecten santamaria (DN 9) and Chesapecten middlesexensis (DN 10) represents a considerable loss of the fossil record in the stratigraphic succession of chesapecten. These Chesapecten, which bear a strong overall resemblance to Chesapecten middlesexensis while displaying traits of preceding species (smaller hinge, more differentiated byssal fasicole), could help bridge this apparent gap. Notably, no other Chesapecten in this age range outside of Maryland and Virginia have been reported in the literature. Personal Remarks The equivalency of these shells to the St Mary’s Formation, not the Eastover formation is surprising to me given the strong resemblance to C. middlesexensis. If anyone knows of any findings correlating DN 8-9 to the Eastover, or of the Ebenezer to DN 10 please let me know. Also, if anyone has any additional samples of similar shells from similar sites, even in SC please let me know. Thank you! References de Verteuil, L., and Norris, G., 1996, Miocene dinoflagellate stratigraphy and systematics of Maryland and Virginia: Micropaleontology, vol. 42 (Supplement), 172 p. Huddlestun, P.F., 1988, A revision of the lithostratigraphic units of the coastal plain of Georgia; the Miocene through the Holocene: Georgia Geologic Survey Bulletin, no. 104, 162 p. Ward, L.W, 1992, Molluscan biostratigraphy of the Miocene, Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain of North America, VMNH Memoirs, no 2, 152p. Weems, R.E, Edwards, L.E., 2001, Geology of Oligocene, Miocene, and younger deposits in the Coastal Area of Georgia: U.S. Geological Survey, no 131, 129 p. Weems, R.E, Self-Trail J., Edwards, L.E., 2004, Supergroup stratigraphy of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains (Middle? Jurassic through Holocene, eastern North America): Southeastern Geology, volume 42, p 191-216

This fossil is said to be a 6.34 inch x 4.88 inch Megalodon tooth discovered on the Indonesian island of Java! It is estimated that the owner of this tooth was over 15 meters long!

The Peace River is coming down, but not fast enough. I went out thinking about deep water, possible rain, and hopes to find some really nice small Shark teeth, Tigers, Lemons, Hemis, etc,,, I found all of those, but other goodies also... Here is a "group" photo.. and some of the goodies... The 65 mm Meg came out of the clay like this.. 15 minutes later, we had a color change Silver and yellow to Steal Grey and a light brown then a 53 mm tip of a Ray barb A couple of what I think are dolphin teeth,, here is a photo of the smaller one... I will be trying to ID this tooth. Is this just a juvenile version of Goniodelphis hudsoni ?? This fish vert is only 23 mm, and I do not have high hopes of Identification but sometimes TFF magic just happens... Finally , a Mako... Is this hastalis? Great day, lots of finds,,, some interesting... Comments Welcome Jack

Out hunting today, and that's a good thing. My primary exercise is Fossil Hunting and it is strenuous for me. I need to hunt twice a week to stay in reasonable shape but for the month of September, I was out hunting 5 times. The "special" finds are always more exciting but today there were not many combined with finding fewer small shark teeth than previous outings.. In the last 90 minutes, we decided to visit previously fruitful locations, each filling a sieve and moving on if nothing special was showing up. With 30 minutes to go, along with 7 small shark teeth, 2 dermal denticles, and a couple of sawfish rostral teeth, out pops a pretty nice Meg. At first I thought unbroken, but definitely a heartbreaker.. Great fat root, nice serrations. Even broken , this is special... 2nd last sieve, a tridactyl horse upper molar, slightly distressed and possibly identifiable. I think it is likely Nannippus, but I will be trying to ID species. Great day. No rain, slightly cooler and found a couple of specials and Zolfo USGS gauge coming down. I hope to get back to Peace River hunting late next week.

Hello everyone, I need your advise. I just bought a 5" megalodon tooth that was dipped in seal oil (buyer says that this was for protecting it). I searched everywhere, talked to many people. I understand that oiling was a bad idea. I tried to clean it with warm water and soap. I would not try some substance more agressive. What should I do more than that? That oil is indeed that bad for fossils? Why is oil that bad for fossils? How can I clean it better?

Labor Day. I went into the South Florida jungle and labored strenuously. Mosquito and Horse Fly bites, hands and arms sliced by Saw Palmetto fronds. I did get some rewards.. One was getting to stand in the water while hunting. Almost all marine fossils On the way to the site, I noted scattered bones from a 3-4 year old cow. There were some Vertebrae with fused epiphysis, but at least 3-4 epiphysis laying on the ground. I decided to take photos that I could use for comparison purposes The lower m3 seems to be approximately 40 mm. Note the stylids. I was curious about the shape of uppers versus lowers. I note that the upper M3 is actually smaller in length than the M1 or M2. Just sharing a day well spent. Muscles really sore, lots of cuts, charleyhorse in left thigh...

I originally thought that 1 might be some piece of turtle, but it looks very strange to me up close. It is divided into many tiny cells unlike any bone I’ve seen before. It also seems to have a generally geometric shape, with the top end pointed outwards and the bottom end having two concave divots (terms “top” and “bottom” refer to the orientation in the numbered picture). Im quite sure 2 is either to a great white or megalodon. Normally I would say great white due to the general lack of a bourlette, but it is so small that I’m uncertain. I do not know if 3 is identifiable, but I was already posting the first two so figured I might as well include it. I have never found a bone with a long indent running along the middle of the outside of the bone. Just thought it was curious.

My son found what I think is an oddly shaped Megalodon tooth (grey tooth) on the beach in South Carolina near Charleston. The tooth seems small, blunt, and rounded. It's very thick, but only about 7cm long. Aside from the big chip at the tip, the enamel on the outer edges is intact but wavy, so the deformation isn't from breakage or wear in the ocean. I included another tooth I found on a beach in NC (Topsail Island) for comparison (I don't know the species of that one either -- maybe another meg?). The back of the enamel on the meg tooth is split and there's a weird, circular nub the top where the enamel ends which looks like a growth. It's definitely part of the tooth and about 2-3mm above the enamel. The split in the enamel on the back is also raised and you can feel a noticeable ridge all the way down the back of the tooth. I provided a close up of it. Can anyone tell me: 1. Is this a meg tooth? 2. What might be wrong with it? Why is it so short and what might that split and nub on the back be? 3. What's the species of the normal-looking black tooth used for comparison? Thanks

If you are planning to go to Summerville, SC for your first time, and have been hoping to find Shark Teeth, please read this. My Advice: · I advise only going if you know someone with known locations, or otherwise plan to hire a company or a guide (I do not have someone to recommend). Finding teeth on your own is quite difficult. My hunt: I got lucky this time on a 3-day trip. After having visited Summerville years before with my son to great success, we went through over 25 spots (August 2023) with only two teeth found. We were discouraged. Luckily, we found one location that netted us the teeth shown as a last-minute discovery at the end of day 2. We returned on day 3 after morning rain. Our goal was to find a Megalodon tooth (even broken) of 3" or more, which we were successful!! If it wasn’t for that one spot, the trip would have been disastrous. Unfortunately, the spot that we found will soon have a structure over it so I cannot say this opportunity exists for the future. What didn’t work on my trip? · My known, secret spots didn’t have shark teeth this time. · I had researched fossil formation areas, inland tides, and elevation maps; yet the locations we visited didn’t have shark teeth. We found the right layers, but not teeth (even with low creek flows). What has changed in Summerville? I believe: · Inability to use tools is impactful (there is a law against it). · I believe the hurricane years ago exposed quite a bit of fossils, but since then the volume of fossils are not being exposed quickly. I should have realized there have been a lack of YouTube postings over the past few years. If you go to the Beach without a guide/company: · Going during the day, even at low tide, has too many tourists looking for fossils. We made this mistake. · Go first thing in the morning for better odds. · Go after a storm. · Find a location away from tourists. We are pleased with the results in the images below. I hope this information is useful. Thank you

This is something I just found out yesterday, but feel is amazing enough to share on the fourm (especially to all those who study Carcharocles (Otodus) megalodon)!!! I was researching shark diversity during the late Eocene when I came across some info on a fossil Shark rostral node specimens from the Zanclean Pilocene sections of the Yorktown Formation dating around 5.3-3.6 Million Years ago in what is now North Carolina. The Specimens USNM 474994, 474995, 474996, 474997, 474998, and 474999 belongs to juvenile sharks (with USNM 474998 belonging to an individual shark of about 1.46 meters (4.8 feet) in length). Originally believed to be rostral nodes of a Lamna sp., they were reanalyzed and discovered by Scientists Dr. Frederik H. Mullen and Dr. John W.M. Jagt to be from Juvenile Otodontidae Sharks. (also, USNM = National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., U.S.A.) Mollen, F.H. and Jagt, J.W.M. (2012). The taxonomic value of rostral nodes of extinct sharks, with comments on previous records of the genus Lamna (Lamniformes, Lamnidae) from the Pliocene of Lee Creek Mine, North Carolina (USA). Acta Geologica Polonica, 62(1), 117–127. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262142193_The_taxonomic_value_of_rostral_nodes_of_extinct_sharks_with_comments_on_previous_records_of_the_genus_Lamna_Lamniformes_Lamnidae_from_the_Pliocene_of_Lee_Creek_Mine_North_Carolina_USA Reconstruction by Tyler Greenfield, 2021 This research also strongly indicates/directly suggests these rostral node specimens might belong to fetal or newborn individuals of Carcharocles (Otodus) megalodon!!! If correct, it would be the one of the most significant finds in terms of non-tooth C. megalodon fossil material since the relatively recent discovery of specimen IRSNB P9893 (also known as IRSNB 3121), a pretty complete C. megalodon fossil vertebrae column from a Miocene Formation in what is now Belgium!!! Shimada, Kenshu & Bonnan, Matthew & Becker, Martin & Griffiths, Michael. (2021). Ontogenetic growth pattern of the extinct megatooth shark Otodus megalodon —implications for its reproductive biology, development, and life expectancy. Historical Biology. 33(12), 1-6. 10.1080/08912963.2020.1861608. https://par.nsf.gov/servlets/purl/10293771

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230801-megalodon-the-superpredator-that-ate-its-siblings-in-the-womb

Since moving to Gainesville I've had the opportunity to work more closely with the Florida Museum of Natural History (FLMNH). In addition to volunteer digging at the Montbrook site I also get to work on prepping fossils in the prep lab on campus. This brings me into contact with the major players at the museum which is a great fringe benefit to be able to have access to chat with those with lots of paleontological experience. Bruce MacFadden is on the second year of a program to develop an interesting course plan for STEM teachers around Florida. It's an interesting program combining science, paleontology (kids love fossils) and AI which is really trending these days (I promise this text was not written by ChatGPT). As part of this program the teachers will train an online AI program to recognize megalodon teeth from photos. After training one of the things they will do with the class is to see how the AI will do at recognizing partial megalodon teeth (AKA fraglodons). Since each teacher is given a number of fraglodons to use while teaching this program to their students we have a need for less than perfect megs. The teachers get to keep the fraglodons as they will (hopefully) continue to teach the program year after year. I've been able to contact some fossil hunters I know who would likely have a cache of broken megs looking for a good use. Those donations were helpful for the first cohort of teachers but the second cohort (new STEM teachers) are getting ready to work this program into this year's class and we are in need of new fraglodons for them to use. Bruce brought in some of the fraglodons they used while teaching the program this year so I could take a photo showing the variation in completeness. Note that these are all Florida fraglodons so they are all the usual grayish-black in coloration. Bruce mentioned that color is not a factor and broken megs of any color would be very welcome (even little corners of a root with just a bit of serrated enamel showing). He said that they could really use around 100 fraglodons so I'm putting this out to the forum to see if any of you have some of these less than perfect teeth sitting around in your collection looking for a higher purpose. If you think you have some fraglodons that would help this year's STEM teachers get kids interested in AI and fossils, please contact me via PM. Thanks in advance for all who have something they'd like to contribute. Cheers. -Ken

Is this tooth real and doesn’t have anything suspicious going on ?

Is this meg tooth good ?

So last weekend picked this up from another collecto. About 51 pieces of partial Megalodon teeth from Antwerp & Borseek, Belgium. These are quite more rare than you see in the USA or Indonesia for example. Biggest one measures around 5 inch.