Beachgoers in North Carolina have found giant, six-inch-long fossilized teeth from large ancient sharks that swam the oceans millions of years ago.
The teeth were found at North Topsail Beach and Surf City, N.C., according to local NBC affiliate WITN-TV. Experts said the teeth were likely uncovered from beneath the ocean floor after storms slammed the area.
The six-inch teeth are almost as wide as they are long, enough to cover an adult’s entire palm.
Beachgoers in North Carolina are finding teeth belonging to a 60-foot prehistoric shark https://t.co/S1Qzlxkqcx pic.twitter.com/pvKKyT3u9L
— Austin Hunt (@AustinHunt) October 24, 2015
Experts say the teeth probably come from the 60-foot-long Megalodon, which roamed the world’s oceans 15 million years ago.
“I felt like I was a lottery winner or something,” Denny Blend, the man who found the fossil, according to WITN.
Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum director, added to WITN: “Megalodon was this large, humongous shark that roamed the ancient sea waves during the Miocene and Pliocene time.”
Megalodon was given its name 1843 by Swiss biologist Louis Aggasiz.
According to LiveScience, citing a study, the shark probably went extinct around 2.6 million years ago.
Scientists, however, don’t know the exact date because its fossil record is incomplete, the study noted.
There have been conspiracy theories that Megalodons are still alive, which have been touched on in the Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Shark Week.
