A family’s search for seashells on the Jersey Shore took an unexpected turn when a father and son uncovered the tooth of an ancient shark — and it dates back millions of years.
Mike Bowers and his son, Bo Bowers, uncovered the fossil, which came from an Otodus megalodon, in Sea Isle City near the Townsend Inlet on August 11.
Megalodons were the largest predatory sharks in Earth’s history, and went extinct around 4 million years ago.
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Pictures of the tooth show its massive size and dark, jagged edge, with the fossil measuring roughly the length of young Bo Bowers’ hand.
The Pennsylvania family had been vacationing in Wildwood when an overcast day prompted them to look for somewhere different to search for shells, Mike Bowers told Fox News Digital.
“There was a rock jetty and a real nice looking beach,” said Mike Bowers. “And I was like, well, let’s go check it out.”
The father noticed something in a small opening between two rocks, but his hand was too large to fit, so he called his son over.
Bo Bowers told Fox News Digital that he was initially hesitant to reach into the rocks but grabbed the tooth as soon as he saw it.
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The 11-year-old said it was “really hard to believe” when he learned the tooth was millions of years old.
“He likes to look for shark teeth and stuff like that,” Mike Bowers added.
The family “definitely did not expect to find something of that stature,” he added.
The Bowers family was allowed to keep the tooth because it was found on a public beach, the dad told Fox News Digital.
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On their way home to western Pennsylvania, the family stopped at the New Jersey State Museum to have the tooth examined.
“[An official] took us up to the fossil lab, and he examined it and confirmed it,” he said. “[It] 100% is a true megalodon tooth.”
Mike Bowers added that an official told him only five megalodon teeth had previously been recorded as found on New Jersey beaches, and that the family’s discovery was the sixth.
Dana Ehret of the New Jersey State Museum confirmed the tooth’s authenticity to Fox News Digital.
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“These teeth are highly uncommon in New Jersey because we do not have the right aged sediments preserved at or near the surface,” said Ehret.
“The Bowers tooth is in extraordinary good condition for a tooth from New Jersey. It reminds me of the teeth found in North Carolina, where they are much more common,” he added.
“Typically, teeth [found in New Jersey] are substantially worn from being in the water for long periods of time.”
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The discovery is one of several ancient finds made by children in unexpected places in recent months.
Earlier this year, an 11-year-old boy in England discovered a roughly 1.8 million-year-old tooth from an extinct relative of modern elephants while visiting a beach.
In another unusual find, an 8-year-old boy in Israel found a 1,700-year-old Roman statuette fragment and brought it to school for show-and-tell.
