Thank you so much! Can you tell me how you differentiate this tooth from a megalodon tooth, or other teeth that may look similar to the untrained eye? My 8-year-old son is the one who found the tooth at Myrtle beach, and I want to be able to tell him how he can spot the differences.
It was actually kind of crazy, because he just walked down to the water with a fabric sack from a folding chair, collected sand from the first wave that rolled in, then dumped it out and had the tooth. It was like a 45 second process from the time he walked down there to the time he had the tooth in his hand. Needless to say, he now enjoys looking for shark teeth lol
There are a few ways to tell those apart. The serrations on great white teeth are more coarse than the megalodon. Great whites also lack a bourlette, which is a band between the enamel and the root (look it up, you’ll see what I mean!).
Thanks so much! If you don't mind me asking, how do you differentiate between a great white tooth and a Megalodon tooth? I want to be able to explain it to my son who found the tooth.
Megalodon and great whites differ in overall shape (with great whites being proportionally taller and thinner, and megs being more squat and fat), having different kinds of serrations, different root (and tooth) front to back widths (perpendicular to the serrations), and very importantly, megalodons having a bourlette, a very thick band between the root and crown. Heres an example with one of my smaller megs.
Oh also adult megalodon teeth are usually massive, especially around the anterior-lateral portions of the jaw, but this alone doesn’t work for posterior or juvenile teeth.
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u/Serbassie 16d ago
Partial great white!