My… What Big Teeth You Have…

Despite the weather, Saturday was a gorgeous day. I spent the afternoon and evening in the backyard of Matthew and Ryan's house (two new friends), enjoying delicious food, a double rainbow, and awesome company. One thing I wasn't counting on was getting the chance to hold 10 million-year-old relics: teeth from a Megalodon.

If this is the first time you're hearing the name "Megalodon," let me bring you up to speed. The Megalodon (Latin meaning "Big Tooth") was a giant species of shark that lived between 15.9 million and 2.9 million years ago. It was huge. How huge? If it were alive today, it would be able to swallow a Great White like it's a minnow.

A guest at the party had just gotten back from a scuba diving trip off the coast of North Carolina. Three miles off shore, and 85 feet down is a Megalodon graveyard, full of vertebrae, bone, and, of course, their infamous teeth.  Below is an example of one of the larger fossils this diver was able to bring to the surface, though, understand, this is just a baby tooth.

Some of these specimens are in such great condition the serrated edge shows no wear. It's unbelievable.

And, although my brain pulled an Indiana Jones ("It belongs in a museum!!!"), the 8-year-old inside me who never missed a trip to the Field Museum was elated to hold something from the early Pleistocene era.  In my hand.  My actual hand.

So, thanks Matt and Ryan for a wonderful party, and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.