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Massive Megalodon Shark Tooth Discovered on South Carolina Beach

While seeing a shark during a trip to a beach can ruin the mood, finding a rare megalodon shark tooth is a different story.

According to Newsweek, Missy Tracewell and her husband were on Hunting Island in South Carolina when she noticed the tooth poking out of the sand.

It was eventually discovered that the tooth in question came from a prehistoric megalodon shark.

Tracewell Shares Her Discovery

“I pick it up, and I stand up, and I’m so shocked that I have it in my hand … that I dropped it on the sand … I’m screaming, and I’m just like a five-year-old, jumping up and down and I was crying, ‘I cannot believe this. Oh my god I just found a megalodon tooth,’” Tracewell told Newsweek.

A local nonprofit shared her discovery on their Twitter.

Hunting Island is South Carolina’s most popular state park. Friends of Hunting Island help preserve the natural resources of the area.

Tracewell shared the image on her Facebook account where it got a lot of attention.

Many social media users wondered if this was actually from the megalodon or if it was something else entirely.

However, Jack Cooper, a PhD student, told Newsweek that the shape of the tooth was a dead giveaway that it did in fact belong to the megalodon. This shark lived 20 million years ago.

Fascination With ‘The Meg’

According to Live Science, the megalodon was the largest shark to ever swim the oceans. The name of the shark actually means “giant tooth” because its teeth are 3 times larger than the great white shark.

Not the kind of fish nibble you’d want to feel while dipping your feet in nice, cool beach water.

Luckily for humans the megalodon went extinct long before humans were around to bother them.

The 2018 movie “The Meg” actually features a huge 75-foot-long shark that a group of scientists encounters on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. Like any shark-related film, the plot focuses on how to destroy the huge, human-devouring beast before it snacks on too many humans.

Many collectors also find and sell these teeth for a pretty steep price. One business owner in Dakota County, Minnesota, collects and sells the teeth anywhere from $10 to $50,000.

Gary Goldberger continues to be fascinated by these teeth, similar to beach-goers like Tracewell who stumble on them.

“When you look at some of those teeth that are in the exact shape they were when they were in the shark’s mouth, the pristine nature of them, it’s amazing to think about … That’s what draws me to collecting them,” Goldberg said to Owatonna.com.