11-year-old boy finds huge tooth of Megalodon extinct for millions of years

An 11-year-old boy on a family vacation in New Jersey has uncovered a remarkably rare piece of prehistoric history.

Bo Bowers was exploring the beach in Sea Isle City with his father, Michael, when the pair noticed something unusual wedged between rocks. What they pulled from the narrow opening turned out to be a four-inch megalodon tooth.

Megalodon is believed to have been the largest shark ever to exist, making the discovery particularly unusual. Fewer than five megalodon teeth have reportedly been found in New Jersey, according to Dana Ehret, natural history curator at the New Jersey State Museum.

The discovery happened while Bo and Michael, from Pittsburgh, were digging around among rocks on the beach. Michael couldn’t reach into the small opening where they spotted the object, but Bo’s smaller hands allowed him to get inside and retrieve it.

“I was like shocked and like excited at the same time,” Bo said, per NBC Philadelphia.

“My son was speechless”

Michael was just as stunned by what his son had found.

“I never in a million years would have guessed that we would have found something like this. My son was speechless,” Michael said, as cited by The Telegraph, according to VT.

The family later brought the fossil to the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center and the New Jersey State Museum. Experts at both locations confirmed that the tooth was genuine.

Daniel Lovino of the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center described the discovery as an unusually lucky find.

“It’s an amazing sighting. That family’s really lucky.”

“There’s only a handful of recorded findings of Megalodon teeth off of New Jersey’s coastline,” Lovino added.

Matt Remuzzi, also of the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center, said: “It is actually the best condition Megalodon tooth I’ve ever seen. It was pretty incredible.”

The tooth was also heavier than the family expected when they finally got it out of the rocks.

“It’s actually a lot heavier than we both thought it would be,” Michael said.

Made a unique discovery

There is a visible chip near the end of the tooth, which experts believe could reveal something about the animal’s life millions of years ago.

“This big chip on the end, they say it was probably from it biting into something, hitting the bone and it chipped it,” Michael said.

Researchers think the tooth may have been brought up from the ocean during a beach replenishment project conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers earlier this summer.

One of the largest predators ever

Megalodons were enormous carnivorous sharks. The largest specimens may have reached around 24.3 meters long and up to 94 tons. According to Natural History Museum, “that makes it about four times longer than the largest recorded great white shark and a few metres longer than today’s biggest whale sharks.”

Research published in Science Advances has suggested that the shark’s enormous jaws may have been capable of consuming an animal the size of a killer whale in five bites.

Bo and his family plans to hold onto the exceptionally rare fossil.

“A bucket list item for sure,” Michael said.

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