Florida was a very different place millions of years ago. Many parts of the area were completely submerged, and the waters were filled with giant ancient sharks, including megalodon, the largest shark that ever lived. That is why today the coast of Sarasota County in Venice, Florida, is known as the shark tooth capital of the world. Recently, the captain of a charter boat discovered one of the largest fossilized megalodon shark teeth.

One of the largest megalodon teeth ever found
Michael Nastasio, who has been hunting shark teeth in Florida for 12 years, has found a fully intact megalodon shark tooth 6.25 inches (15.87 cm) long, just one inch smaller than the largest megalodon tooth on record.

The tooth was one of two he had recently discovered. The first was less whole and broken from above. “I was surprised when I found the second one and it was whole,” Nastasio said. State. To date, no one has found a complete fossilized skeleton of a megalodon shark. Therefore, scientists can only guess how big the shark will be. But Jack Cooper, a megalodon researcher at Swansea University, said in this case: “We can immediately say that this shark is huge.”

Megalodon’s teeth are similar to those of a great white shark, and the two species are believed to be closely related. This is why scientists use the great white shark as a way of estimating the size of the megalodon.

“These methods rely on the relationship between tooth size and body length of a living great white shark to estimate the hypothetical body length of Megalodon,” said Victor Perez, a shark fossil expert and visiting assistant professor at Saint Mary’s College.

“The tooth here looks like the upper front tooth. [біля передньої частини рота]A size of 6.25 inches probably represents a shark that is at least 15 meters long, much longer than 15 meters,” Cooper said.

Emma Bernard, curator of the fossil fish section at the Natural History Museum in London, said: “From the size of the tooth, it must have belonged to one of the larger megalodons. The largest megalodon is estimated to have been between 15 and maybe 18 meters long, with the 15 meter mark most appropriate. It shows that Nastasio’s tooth probably came from a semi-truck-sized megalodon.

A megalodon female is worth thousands of dollars

Nastasio runs a company called Black Gold Fossil Charters, which regularly organizes underwater excursions for people who want to hunt shark teeth, whether for business or pleasure. It turns out that you can make money in the megalodon business.

“Megalodon teeth are sold and bought, and often at very high prices. People who buy these teeth are often budding scientists or enthusiasts who have their own private collection or want to have the largest tooth they can find,” Cooper said.

The price of a megalodon tooth depends on its size, color and quality of the fossil, and there are websites where you can find megalodon teeth for over $7,000.

The shark experts we spoke to did not want to specify the exact value of the giant tooth Nastasio found, but implied that such a large and intact megalodon tooth could be sold for good money.

Nastasio has put up some shark teeth he found in the past at a shark fossil shop called Shark Frenzy, but he won’t do the same for the rare 6.25-inch megalodon fossil, WTSP reports. He recently told WTSP that he won’t be selling his biggest shark tooth – he’s holding it.