Six-inch long teeth of ancient Megalodon shark found on North Carolina beach

The fossilised teeth of a giant ancient shark have washed up on beaches in North Carolina.

Six-inch long teeth from the Megalodon, a prehistoric shark which roamed the oceans 15 million years ago, were found by beach-goers at Topsail Beach and Surf City.


Beach dredging and recent rains on the sands may have exposed the fossilised teeth, telling the tale of of a 60-foot (18 metre) creature.

Cynthia Crane, Aurora Fossil Museum director, told WITN: "Megalodon was this large, humongous shark that roamed the ancient sea waves during the Miocene and Pliocene time."

The name Megalodon was first given in 1843 by Swiss-born biologist Louis Aggasiz

Other tooth findings indicate that the Megalodon weighed up to 30 times as much as today's Great White Shark at a hefty 70 to 100 tons.

But its fossil record is incomplete and when it became extinct is unclear, according to livescience.com.

There are some conspiracy theories that the species survives to this day, which is not backed by science but was perpetuated by fictional novels such as Steve Alten's "Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror" and Discovery Channel's fictional-documentary in 2014.

Another tooth was found this summer in a Croatian river, according to the Mail Online.