Categories: World

British boy finds tooth of giant Megalodon shark that could be 20 million years old

<p>
A six-year-old boy in Britain has found a shark tooth belonging to a giant prehistoric megalodon that could be up to 20 million years old.</p>
<p>
Sammy Shelton found the 10cm-long (4in) tooth on Bawdsey beach in Suffolk. It has been confirmed as belonging to a megalodon – the largest shark that ever existed – by expert Prof Ben Garrod, according to BBC News.</p>
<p>
The boy’s father, Peter Shelton, sent photographs of the find to Prof Garrod, a broadcaster and evolutionary biologist at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.</p>
<p>
"It belonged to a megalodon, the largest ever shark – and its teeth are not often found around the UK coastline," BBC cited the expert as saying.</p>
<p>
The megalodon could grow up to 18m (60ft) in length, scientists estimate, and weigh up to 60 tonnes, he said.</p>
<p>
“Dwarfing anything else swimming in the waters at the time, these were "specialist whale eaters,” Prof Garrod said.</p>
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The megalodon was a carnivore and had no known predators</p>
<p>
It could eat anything it liked, but its favourite food was whales</p>
<p>
Most of this shark's hunting was in the open sea and it attacked its prey near the surface, when it came up for air</p>
<p>
Lived from about 20 million years ago, long after the dinosaurs became extinct 65 million years ago.</p>

IN Bureau

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