Megalodon Tooth Discovered by Remotely Operated Submersible in Previously Unexplored Ocean Area 10,000 Feet Deep

A submarine that was remotely operated was gathering samples from a deep sea mountain that was previously unexplored. It was then that it was able to come across and scoop a megalodon tooth.

Rare Megalodon Tooth Found Deep-Sea

The tooth is gold-colored and is roughly 6.8 centimeters in length. It was found over 10,000 feet below the surface, close to Johnstoll Atoll within the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. This was roughly 1,300 kilometers in the Hawaiian Islands south.

The finding was described by the researchers in the "First in situ documentation of a fossil tooth of the megatooth shark Otodus (Megaselachus) megalodon from the deep sea in the Pacific Ocean" study. Videos regarding the event have now been released by the Ocean Exploration Trust, which was behind the 2022 expedition that led to the discovery of the tooth.

The discovery is the megalodon tooth's first in-situ observation and sampling. This means that the fossil was spotted right in its original resting area.

In most cases, deep-sea fossils are gathered by dragging nets through the ocean floor. Because of this, researchers tend to miss out on crucial information, including the fossil's exact location.

Associate professor Nicolas Straube from the University Museum of Bergen, who is a co-author of the study, notes that the discovery is an amazing find. Straube adds that the fossil was found at an extremely remote deep-sea locality from which the documentation of megalodon fossils is rare.

Researchers who were aboard the Nautilus exploration vessel of the Ocean Exploration Trust were gathering samples around the Johnston Atoll back in June 2022 in order to study deep-sea biology and geology. There, they launched a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) known as Hercules to film and gather the samples. These samples were then brought to the University of Rhode Island for further processing.

It was there that researchers discovered the tooth in one sample. They suspected it to be from a megalodon, which was later confirmed by researcher and co-author Dave Ebert from the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

As they examined the video taken by Hercules, the researchers also observed that the tooth was clearly sticking out of the sand over the seamount prior to being shoveled up by the ROV. Finding an in-situ tooth on a mountain in the deep ocean could aid researchers in discovering more about the ocean habits of the massive shark.

Megalodon Sharks

Megalodon, or Otodus megalodon, was the largest shark that ever existed. These creatures could grow from 15 meters to 20 meters in length. These huge predators were at the top of the food chain in the ocean roughly 20 million years ago. This was until they went extinct, roughly 3.6 million years ago.

The teeth of these creatures are quite common fossils. A megalodon had roughly 276 teeth, and they typically dwelled in oceans all over the world. However, most fossils were found on land near the shores or rivers rather than in the deep sea.

First author and researcher Jürgen Pollerspöck from the Bavarian State Collection of Germany explains that the fossil offers crucial insights regarding megalodon distribution. The sample shows that megalodons were not just coastal species and that they may have migrated through ocean basins similar to several modern species today.

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