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The Mother of All Sharks
by Bill Eberlein - megateeth.com
photos by Shawn Heifert/John Wood
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 illions
of years ago
a giant shark called a Megalodon
swam the world’s oceans. This giant
shark was ten times larger than the
shark depicted in the movie JAWS.
It was as massive as the largest
whales that live today. In addition to
its size, the Megalodon had
hundreds of razor sharp serrated
teeth many of which were larger
than a grown man’s hand. Scientist
believe that the Megalodon became
extinct two million years ago
because of climate change and the
evolution of the giant whales that the
Megalodon fed on. The thought is
that the whales became faster and
more elusive.
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These amazing Megalodon teeth have
survived for Millions of years in the form of
fossils and are highly collected around the
world.
I am a SCUBA diver from Savannah
Georgia in the United States. I spend my
days diving in 10-20 meters of murky water
searching for these fossilized Megateeth.
The strong currents cause the water to stir
up the mud on the bottom where the
Megalodon lived and shed their teeth. Even
with a very powerful dive light I usually have
zero visibility. Even when I can not see what
I just found, I cannot describe the
excitement I feel underwater when I find a
giant shark tooth measuring up to 17 cm.
long and 12 cm. wide. It is an amazing
feeling!!!
This excitement transfers to others at the marina
when I return from a dive trip. People always come to the boat
asking to see the Megateeth that I found on the day’s dives
. They want to know how I found them and what creatures I bumped
into that day.
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I often sell some of them right at
the dock.
Most of the remainder of the teeth that I find
are sold on my website at
www.Megateeth.com. Every tooth is unique and people cannot get
enough of these teeth or
the stories about how they are found.
I first saw a Megalodon Tooth when a fellow
SCUBA diver in Savannah showed me one that
he found while diving. When you hold a
Megalodon tooth for the first time, you are
instantly struck by its weight. Some weigh
almost 2 pounds (900 Grams). Imagine the
mouth that would hold almost 300 of them.
Then you start holding it up to things around
you. “It’s as big as my entire outstretched
hand”. After seeing that first tooth I marched
home and booked a dive charter out of Hilton
Head, South Carolina. I just needed one
Megalodon tooth to call my own. The only
problem is that collectors never have one of
any¬thing, and they are a lot of fun to find.
Fun comes in different brands, and I find mine
in the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway, along the
Geor¬gia coast. This is black water diving, and
it’s not for
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newbies. You’re
down there with very strong
currents that can drag you along the bottom
away from the boat waiting to pick you up.
You usually have no visibility whatsoever. I
own a $1200 dive light, and, even with that, I
often can’t read my gauges. People ask me
how I know when to come up and I tell them
that I surface when it gets hard to breathe.
Spring through autumn, my traditional
SCUBA gear includes a wet suit with thin
gloves. When it’s cold, I wear a dry suit that
seals around my neck and wrists to keep out
the cold water. Weights keep me on the
bottom where the Megateeth are. Picture
being blind¬folded and dropped down in the
middle of a field. I crawl along and dig my
hands, and sometimes arms, down into the
mud until I find the fossil bed where
Megalodon teeth and other extraordinary
fossils are found. This means going through a
lot of silt with my hands, and that same
material is what tinted fossilized shark teeth a
variety of colors. In this area a lot are gray,
but there are others that are jet black. The
tidal rivers cut down to what would normally
be found 10 to 15 meters below the Earth’s
surface. Finding Megateeth is the goal, but I
have also found Mammoth and Mastodon
fossils from later time periods.
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Some days I find nothing at all.
Like fishing it
can be hit or miss. It’s also not uncommon for me to find
two or three good teeth, and a few
chipped ones, on a single dive. There are
some instances that the teeth were damaged
while the animal was alive and feeding.
People have found Mega¬lodon teeth broken
off in fossilized prehistoric whale vertebrae.
Think of the thrashing that takes place while
one giant fights for survival and another for a
good meal.
While you’re looking for the remains of the
dead, you’re also bumping into what’s alive.
Accidentally grabbing a sting ray is pretty
normal, and I fear them more than I do
sharks. They come flying out of the mud with
their barbed tail thrashing around. When you
blindly grab something and it moves you jump
back as far and as fast as you can. Even a
small flounder burst¬ing from the river bed
will give you quite a start. What I really hate
is when I grab what I think is the smooth
enamel surface of a Megalodon tooth, and it
turns out to be the shell of a blue crab offering
a painful pinch. Then there are those shoves
by something big and heavy that I can’t see.
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Tiger sharks, Bull
sharks and Hammerheads
are all possibilities. So are alligators which,
on occasion, enter this brackish water.
Thankfully, I don’t hold much interest for
these carnivores–it seems. Boats are also
hazards. Underwater, you can hear them
above you, but it is impossible to tell how
close they are. The sound is distorted, and,
for this reason, I must use extreme caution
when I surface.
What started out as a hobby quickly became
an obsession: boxes and boxes of teeth that
made my wife ask why I was diving for
more? In 2001, I did what most collectors
do to hold on to their habit; I agreed to sell
some. My website www.megateeth.com was
born. It distinguishes itself from other sites
selling Megalodon teeth by containing only
those fossils that I have found myself. I make
sure customers understand this, and I’ve
been told that they appreci¬ate it. It
personalizes the experience, but it also
alleviates questions about teeth that
customers should ask.
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Megateeth.com is also a resource
for those
who want to learn more about Megalodon
teeth. The collector’s guide is full of photos
that help to evaluate and identify tooth parts
including: enamel, root, bourrelet, serrations,
etc. My site also defines terminology
common among teeth collectors, so you are
able to understand important descriptions. I
enjoy sharing tips like never trusting the
measurement of a ruler. A caliper measuring
to 1/1000 of an inch should be your guide.
Size of a tooth shifts its worth by hundreds of
dollars, so it is important to be exact.
Even as thousands are raised from river and
sea beds, scientists are constantly learning
new bits about the massive shark. At the
University of New South Wales in Sydney
Australia, researchers have developed
computer software to measure the
Megalodon’s bite force. This is cool, because
it tells about its feeding behav¬ior–revealing it
could do this but not that. An advantage of
this sort of thing is that tests don’t damage
valuable specimens, because all of the action
is computer-generated.
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