{"id":7741,"date":"2022-05-10T16:55:10","date_gmt":"2022-05-10T16:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/?p=7741"},"modified":"2022-05-10T16:02:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T16:02:04","slug":"boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach","title":{"rendered":"Boy, six, finds giant megalodon shark tooth on Bawdsey beach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. <\/strong><\/span>A six-year-old boy has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric megalodon that could be up to 20 million years old.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sammy Shelton found the 10cm-long (4in) tooth on Bawdsey beach in Suffolk during a bank holiday break.<\/p>\n

It has been confirmed as belonging to a megalodon – the largest shark that ever existed – by expert Prof Ben Garrod.<\/p>\n

His dad Peter Shelton said Sammy was sleeping with it near his bed as he was “very attached to it”.<\/p>\n

The pair, from Bradwell near Gorleston-on-Sea in Norfolk, were searching for fossils when they came across the giant shark’s tooth, as first reported in the Great Yarmouth Mercury.<\/p>\n

“Sammy was very excited as we’d seen fragments of shark teeth on the beach, but nothing as big and heavy as this,” Mr Shelton said.<\/p>\n

Photographs of the find were sent to Prof Garrod, a broadcaster and evolutionary biologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.<\/p>\n

“It belonged to a megalodon, the largest ever shark – and its teeth are not often found around the UK coastline,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Maybe just a handful a year, but this is a particularly good example, in really good condition, whereas they are usually quite worn when found.”<\/p>\n

The megalodon could grow up to 18m (60ft) in length, scientists estimate, and weigh up to 60 tonnes, he said.<\/p>\n

Dwarfing anything else swimming in the waters at the time, these were “specialist whale eaters – they were ambush hunters,” Prof Garrod said.<\/p>\n

The megalodon dominated all the seas around the world other than those parts of the oceans surrounding Antarctica.<\/p>\n

The megalodon<\/b><\/p>\n

The cartilaginous fish (whose skeleton is made of cartilage rather than bone) was a carnivore and had no known predators<\/p>\n

It could eat anything it liked, but its favourite food was whales, although seals would also have been on the menu<\/p>\n

Most of this shark’s hunting was in the open sea (juveniles lived closer to shore) and it attacked its prey near the surface, when it came up for air<\/p>\n

Megalodon could swim at high speed in short bursts so tended to rush its prey from beneath<\/p>\n

It would first aim to disable its prey by injuring a flipper or the tail, then once unable to swim properly, the victim would be easy to finish off<\/p>\n

Lived from about 20 million years ago, long after the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago<\/p>\n

The name means “big tooth” and the giants were active from about 22 million years ago until about three million years ago when they became extinct.<\/p>\n

Sammy’s find was “a really big thing” for the little boy, Prof Garrod said.<\/p>\n

“Not many people who look for a megalodon tooth actually find one,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I know – I’ve been searching since I was a child and I knew all the beaches around the area – but I still haven’t found my megalodon.”<\/p>\n

Sammy’s excitement has been shared with his friends at school, and he took the tooth to his beaver cubs group, after which he was awarded his explorer badge, his father said.<\/p>\n

Sammy described the “massive” tooth as his best-ever find, and said it was just lying there on the sand and pebbles.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Angola<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. A six-year-old boy has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric megalodon that could be up to 20 million years old. Sammy Shelton found the 10cm-long (4in) tooth on Bawdsey beach in Suffolk during a bank holiday break. It has been confirmed as belonging to a megalodon – the largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":7740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,337,329],"class_list":["post-7741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-angola","tag-angola"],"yoast_head":"\nBoy, six, finds giant megalodon shark tooth on Bawdsey beach - Angola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A six-year-old boy has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric megalodon that could be up to 20 million ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Boy, six, finds giant megalodon shark tooth on Bawdsey beach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A six-year-old boy has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric megalodon that could be up to 20 million ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Angola\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-10T16:55:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/05\/img-627a8c5253f20.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"549\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Boy, six, finds giant megalodon shark tooth on Bawdsey beach\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-10T16:55:10+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\"},\"wordCount\":559,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2022\/05\/img-627a8c5253f20.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Angola\",\"Angola\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"miscellaneous\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/boy-six-finds-giant-megalodon-shark-tooth-on-bawdsey-beach\",\"name\":\"Boy, six, finds giant megalodon shark tooth on Bawdsey beach - 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