Name/Title
Megalodon Shark Tooth (Otodus megalodon)Description
Megalodon Shark Tooth
Otodus megalodon
Miocene
Morgan River, South Carolina, United States
This specimen is a large fossil tooth of Otodus megalodon, the largest predatory shark known to have lived. During the Miocene Epoch, megalodon occupied the apex of marine food webs worldwide, preying on whales, dolphins, and other large marine vertebrates. Estimates based on tooth size and body proportions suggest adults routinely exceeded 15 meters (50 feet) in length.
The tooth preserves a broad, triangular crown with fine serrations along the cutting edges—an adaptation for slicing through thick flesh and bone. The robust root, heavily mineralized and well-defined, reflects the immense forces generated during feeding. Subtle color variation across the crown and root records post-depositional mineralization after burial in marine sediments.
The Morgan River region of South Carolina is a well-known source of fossil shark teeth, recovered from Miocene and Pliocene marine deposits laid down when much of the southeastern United States was submerged beneath shallow coastal seas. Teeth are abundant because sharks continually shed and replaced them throughout life, resulting in a fossil record dominated by isolated dental elements rather than skeletons.
As a fossil object, this tooth conveys both scale and ecological power. It offers a direct material connection to a time when giant sharks shaped marine ecosystems and serves as a reminder that Earth’s oceans have long been home to predators rivaling—or exceeding—those of the present day.
Dimensions: 4.19 × 2.87 × 0.69 inches (10.64 × 7.29 × 1.76 cm)Create Date
August 3, 2025Update Date
December 20, 2025