A family's vacation on the Jersey Shore took an unexpected turn when a father and son uncovered the tooth of an ancient shark. Mike Bowers and his son, Bo Bowers, found the fossil in Sea Isle City near the Townsend Inlet on August 11.
The tooth is from an Otodus megalodon, which was the largest predatory shark in Earth's history and went extinct around 4 million years ago. The family had been searching for seashells when they stumbled upon a rock jetty with a small opening between two rocks. Mike Bowers noticed something inside but couldn't fit his hand into the space, so he called his son over.
Bo Bowers, 11, was initially hesitant to reach into the rocks but grabbed the tooth as soon as he saw it. He later learned that the tooth is millions of years old and was "really hard to believe." The family was allowed to keep the tooth because it was found on a public beach.
The tooth was brought to the New Jersey State Museum for examination, where officials confirmed its authenticity. Dana Ehret of the museum said that megalodon teeth are highly uncommon in New Jersey due to the lack of preserved sediments at or near the surface. The Bowers family's discovery is notable because it is only the sixth recorded megalodon tooth found on a New Jersey beach.
The discovery joins a list of other ancient finds made by children in unexpected places, including an 11-year-old boy who discovered a 1.8 million-year-old elephant tooth in England and an 8-year-old boy who found a 1,700-year-old Roman statuette fragment in Israel.
NTC Report coverage is based on reporting from the original publisher.
View original reporting →
