Earlier this month, an adventurous 8-year-old discovered a petrified shark tooth from a long-extinct species while on a family vacation in South Carolina.
Riley Gracely, a little boy from Lebanon, Pennsylvania, went on vacation with his parents, Justin Gracely, Janelle Gracely, and Collin, in August to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The family made a pit stop at Palmetto Fossil Excursions, a Summerville, South Carolina, facility that offers instructional fossil-hunting excursions.
Child Finds Giant Shark Tooth in South Carolina
The child was taking part in a fossil-hunting tour in Summerville when he reportedly found a 4.75-inch tooth that belonged to the extinct shark Carcharocles angustidens.
"Truly the find of a lifetime," PFE wrote in an Aug. 11 Facebook post. "This young man just scored a 4.75" Angustiden tooth in our Premium Gravel Layer piles on a dry dig!!!"
Angustidens over 4 inches are equal to obtaining a 6-inch megalodon tooth, and angustidens at 4.75 inches are similar to finding a 6.5-inch megalodon tooth, according to the researchers.
The boy's discovery which he shared on Facebook, has received hundreds of likes and dozens of comments since Monday.
Beachcombers in the Southeast now frequently search for shark teeth from both extinct and living species, Outdoor Life wrote. Shark teeth have been found on various beaches in Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina.
Summerville was below sea level millions of years ago and was a major feeding area for several gigantic, extinct shark species. Many of their remnants were preserved in the limestone and clay left behind after the water levels dropped.
About Angustidens
The megatoothed shark Angustidens existed for around 33 million to 22 million years during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs, Fox News reported.
The Hudson Institute of Mineralogy in Keswick, Virginia, hosts Mindat.org, a nonprofit mineral database and reference website. According to it, angustidens was thought to be closely related to megalodons, an extinct prehistoric shark species thought to be the biggest shark species ever to live, according to experts when they discovered its bones.
According to estimates, between the early Miocene and Pliocene epochs, megalodons existed between 23 million and 3.6 million years ago.
Megalodons may have reached a length of 68.6 feet, according to scientists.
It was estimated that the megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago, according to Newsweek.
The oldest shark fossils stretched back more than 20 million years and were one of the biggest and most powerful predators ever existed.
The largest megalodon may have been 50 to 60 feet in length. The tallest great white sharks ever seen were only around 20 feet long.
On the other hand, Prehistoric-Wildlife.com, a website that lists prehistoric creatures, noted that angustidens were said to have grown as tall as 30.5 feet.
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