A Shark Tooth’s Treasures Finding a shark tooth, from the very little to the palm-sized and old Megalodon-sized teeth, is both powerful and mysterious. These extraordinary marine world artifacts provide access to some of the ocean's most powerful and intriguing species. For many people, discovering a shark tooth is the closest they'll ever get to see a genuine shark.
We're as obsessed with shark teeth as you are, so much so that we've dedicated three excursions to them: finding them, learning how to locate them, recognizing them in fossil form, and more.
FACTS YOU SHOULD KNOW
Before they turn into the riches you could uncover on your next excursion, we need to discuss shark teeth when they're still just regular teeth for our sharky buddies. The number of teeth a shark possesses is proportional to its size. Because shark teeth lack a root, they are continually falling.
Sharks with between three and fifteen rows of growing teeth in their mouths at any given moment, and their gums continually shift these teeth into their correct biting positions, much like a conveyor belt. While shark teeth appear sinister in their jaws, what makes them even more horrifying is the strength in a shark's jaw, which has become stronger over time.
Shark teeth come in diverse forms and sizes, according to National Geographic, and a shark may lose over 50,000 teeth throughout its lifetime. Sharks have been present for more than 400 million years, according to fossils and other finds, according to National Geographic. That suggests they've existed since the time of the dinosaurs.