A six-year-old boy has found a uncommon tooth of a megalodon—the most important shark that ever lived.

Sammy Shelton, from the village of Bradwell, noticed the fossilized tooth whereas strolling along with his dad on Bawdsey Seaside within the county of Suffolk—situated within the southeast of the U.Okay.—the Nice Yarmouth Mercury reported.

The seashore is well-liked with fossil hunters, a few of whom defined to the household how important the discover was.

"We knew what it was however not how uncommon it was," the boy's father, Peter Shelton, advised the Mercury. "One of many chaps gave the impression to be an authority and stated he had been on the lookout for fossils for years and years and by no means discovered one in all that dimension and full."

Reconstruction of megalodon teeth
Inventory picture displaying a reconstruction of a megalodon jaw with tooth. A six-year-old boy found a megalodon tooth in England.iStock

Megalodon (Otodus megalodon) is a shark species that's thought to have grew to become extinct round 3.6 million years in the past. The earliest stays of this species date again to greater than 20 million years in the past.

The shark is taken into account to be one of many largest and strongest predators ever to have lived, with some estimates suggesting that it might have grown to between roughly 50 toes and 60 toes in size, in response to the Pure Historical past Museum in London.

Nearly all of the recognized stays of this large predator are tooth—the toughest a part of a shark's skeleton. Whereas shark tooth can fossilize comparatively simply, the remainder of the skeleton—which is created from softer cartilage and delicate tissue—is preserved solely in very uncommon circumstances.

On condition that sharks produce and shed 1000's of tooth all through their lifetime and the truth that the species was as soon as discovered everywhere in the globe, fossilized tooth from this shark are comparatively frequent in lots of components of the world, together with off the east coast of North America.

Within the U.Okay. nevertheless, megalodon tooth are very uncommon and are typically of poor high quality, in response to Britain's Pure Historical past Museum.

Evolutionary biologist, broadcaster and writer Ben Garrod, described the six-year-old boy's discover as "wonderful," telling the Mercury that just one or two megalodon tooth are discovered on British shores yearly.

Garrod stated it was a "once-in-a-lifetime" discovery, noting that the enamel and root of the tooth have been nonetheless seen.

"I've appeared for one since I used to be Sammy's age and by no means discovered one," he stated.

"They're discovered everywhere in the world however we don't usually discover them within the U.Okay. It's a actually uncommon discovery and normally they're much extra closely eroded than this one. It is a very nice one for a British one."

"He's dealing with the tooth of the most important ever predatory shark and one which might be of curiosity to the entire palaeontology neighborhood."