Fossilised megalodon tooth found in deep sea. Here's why it is significant

A fossilised megalodon tooth in the deep sea has been discovered by a small team of oceanographers. It was the first in situ discovery. The oceanographers are affiliated with several institutions in the United States, working with a zoologist from Germany's SNSB-Bavarian State Collection of Zoology.

In the research, which has been published in the journal Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology, they have explained how they discovered the ancient shark and what their research revealed about its condition.

Megalodon, which is said to be one of the greatest predators of all time, reportedly roamed the oceans between 4 and 20 million years ago.

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Scientists have not found a lot of evidence about it, but their teeth are still washing up on beaches. Experts have previously said that a shark sheds up to 40,000 teeth in its lifetime, and the megalodon was similar to that.

Fossil teeth of the extinct megalodon have been found in numerous sites of Miocene and Pliocene sediments, which indicate an almost global distribution.

Scientists have even found megalodon teeth sticking out of fossilised whale bones, but this is the first time, a tooth has been found in the location where it originally settled after leaving the mouth. Hence it is extremely significant.

The researchers were aboard the Exploration Vessel (EV) Nautilus and they were surveying the area to understand it in detail.

As quoted by Science Alert, Tyler Greenfield, a palaeontologist at the University of Wyoming, said: "There are areas of the seafloor, especially deep ocean basins far from the mainland, where little to no sediment deposition occurs for long periods of time."

"It's also possible for teeth to be eroded out and reworked into younger sediments, but that probably didn't happen in this case," Greenfield added.

They inspected the tooth on dry land and found that it had a broken tip. It also had a fractured tip and serrated edges.

This finding is of special interest as the tooth was discovered during a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dive and filmed in situ prior to being collected, the study noted.

The team said: "The first in situ documentation of a megatooth shark fossil from the deep sea highlights the importance of using advanced deep-diving technologies to survey the largest and least explored parts of our ocean."

(With inputs from agencies)