Lucky Beachcomber Finds Giant Tooth From Huge Prehistoric Shark

Some people have all the luck.

A couple vacationing in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, went out combing the beach for shark teeth on Oct. 9 and happened upon the tooth of a megalodon, an enormous shark that went extinct more than a million years ago .

”I was standing in ankle-deep water,” Nat Campbell, of Amherst, Virginia, told The Huffington Post. “A wave came in, and there it was. I just scooped it up before another wave came in.”

Campbell said he had no idea what he had found. His wife, Peggy, thought it was a rock. But when he showed the five-inch-long tooth to workers at a nearby beach resort, he said, he was told that it belonged to a megalodon.

A worker at nearby Ripley’s Aquarium confirmed the identification, Campbell said.

Megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon) lived from 23 million years ago until its extinction 2.6 million years ago . It was the biggest shark ever, with some specimens reaching 60 feet in length. 

That dwarfs the great white shark , which grows to about 20 feet in length.

Despite its age and size, the tooth isn’t particularly valuable. The Charlotte Observer said it was valued at more than $100 .

In any case, Campbell has no plans to part with the tooth.

“I’m going to keep it,” he said. “It’s a good piece to talk about.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article erroneously located Myrtle Beach in Virginia.