Father’s Day is June 19th 2022, get him this awesome megalodon shark tooth pendant! Megalodon, meaning “big tooth”, is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago, from the Early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs. It was formerly thought to be a member of the family Lamnidae and a close relative of the great white shark. Wikipedia

Could a megalodon still be alive? Could they still exist? ‘No. It’s definitely not alive in the deep oceans, despite what the Discovery Channel has said in the past,’ notes Emma. ‘If an animal as big as megalodon still lived in the oceans we would know about it.

Why are megalodon teeth so common?

Almost all fossil remains of megalodon are teeth.

Sharks continually produce teeth throughout their entire lives. Depending on what they eat, sharks lose a set of teeth every one to two weeks, getting through up to 40,000 teeth in their lifetime. This means that shark teeth are continuously raining down onto the ocean floor, increasing the chance that they will get fossilised. 

Teeth are also the hardest part of a shark’s skeleton. While our bones are coated in the mineral calcium phosphate, shark skeletons are made entirely from softer cartilage like our nose and ears. 

Megalodon teeth have been found on every continent except Antarctica 

So while the more robust teeth become fossilised relatively easily, only in very special circumstances will soft tissue be preserved.

Fossilised megalodon vertebrae about the size of a dinner plate have also been found.

‘There is also a megalodon fossil found in Peru that apparently has the braincase and all the teeth, with a small string of vertebrae,’ says Emma, ‘although I have yet to see high-quality images of this specimen.’

This extraordinary fossil may help create a better picture of what these gigantic predators looked like.