11-year-old boy finds prehistoric megalodon tooth in rock crevice

11-year-old Bo Bowers and his father Michael went looking for fossils on a beach in New Jersey when they noticed something in a narrow crevice between the rocks. The father tried to reach it, but his hand was too big. So he called his son, who put his hand inside and pulled out a tooth about 10 centimeters long.

Only later did they find out who it belonged to: a megalodon, a huge prehistoric shark that was one of the largest predators to ever swim in the oceans.

"I pulled a shell out of one of the rocks and suddenly I saw there was a hole there," said 42-year-old Michael Bowers. "I looked inside and was just amazed, but I couldn't fit my hand in there. So of course I started yelling like crazy for Bo to come running, because his hand is small enough."

Bo himself admitted that even when he realized that something special was waiting for him inside the rock, he had a second of hesitation: "I was really excited at first, but I was also afraid to put my hand inside and check what was there."

The father and son, who came from Pennsylvania for a vacation in Sea Isle City on the Jersey Shore, took the find to the Cape May Whale Watcher research center. There, experts confirmed that it was a fossilized megalodon tooth. Michael, a fossil hunting enthusiast, said that finding a megalodon tooth had long been on his bucket list, but even he did not expect such a find. "I always find crazy things in the water, but I would never have guessed that we would find something like this," he said. "My son was left speechless."

The tooth was preserved in an impressive way and is almost complete, which makes the discovery especially unusual. According to Dr. Dana Ehret, an expert on fossil sharks and curator at the New Jersey State Museum, such finds are especially rare in the state.

The megalodon was a giant shark that lived for millions of years and disappeared several million years ago. Since shark skeletons are mostly made of cartilage, which decomposes easily, much of our knowledge about the megalodon comes from the teeth and vertebrae it left behind. These teeth were wide, serrated, and built for cutting and tearing large prey.

Experts estimate that the tooth did not necessarily lie all this time in the exact place where the father and son found it. In July, beach nourishment work was carried out in Sea Isle City, during which sediments were moved from the seabed to the coastline. Researchers raised the possibility that the fossil arrived with the sand that was pumped from an area located a few kilometers from the beach.

Melissa Laurino, research director at the Cape May center, defined the find as a once-in-a-lifetime beach discovery. Bo hopes to get the tooth back after experts finish examining it, so he can keep it as a memento.