Lee Creek Megalodon 3.22"

Lee Creek Megalodon 3.22"A serrated Megalodon tooth from Lee Creek, with some chips on one side. The Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) was an ancient ocean giant that ruled the seas between 23 and 3. 6 million years ago. Growing up to 60 feet long, this massive predator had huge, serrated teeth perfect for hunting whales and other large marine mammals. Its fossils have been found all over the world, showing that it thrived in a wide range of marine environments. One of the big

a hydrated nickel chloride formed as a weathering product after the meteorite's long terrestrial burial

and the “look” of Venice-area teeth

” but its preferred environment and some aspects of its anatomy would feel more like a warm-water cousin of the modern Arctic species

especially in scale and behavior

Over the course of roughly 20 million years they went from small coastal predators to the largest and most powerful marine hunters the world had ever seen

visible when etched — a crystalline structure that takes millions of years to form and is impossible to replicate in a laboratory

including partial skeletons

Whale jaw sections

and the distinctive serrated lateral cusplets that set them apart from every other shark in the fossil record

North Africa

are abundant enough that collectors can often afford a large

Fossils from this period often show larger average tooth sizes than many modern populations