A Croatian man got incredibly lucky this month when he came across a giant shark tooth, roughly the size of the palm of his hand. According to reports, it likely belonged to the long-extinct megalodon shark.
According to AOL, Stjepan Sučec was searching the Kupa river in central Croatia for shells on August 21, and found this giant fossilized tooth.
A geologist at the Natural History Museum in Zagreb later concluded that the tooth is probably from a megalodon shark, and Croatia Week reports that it is now in storage, and could one day be put on display.
Megalodon sharks were a giant species — some reaching more than 60 feet long in adulthood. According to researchers at the Florida Museum of Natural History, these monster sharks fed on whales and dolphins. They roamed the globe's oceans 15.9 to 2.6 million years ago, finally going extinct during the Neogene period.
Research suggests that their immenseness was also their downfall. "Body size affects nearly every aspect of an organism's biology and ecology," biology researcher Catalina Pimiento told LiveScience. "When you have a very large organism like megalodon, that can be very good or very bad." Although larger animals can eat more types of food, they also have more competition for those foods, and need more resources and space to survive.
Of course, the world is still fascinated by this giant sea creature, with Discovery Channel releasing a mockumentary around the megalodon a couple of years ago, where viewers were led to believe that the giant shark still existed. Sorry, folks, they're definitely extinct. But we at least have these giant teeth to be in awe of.
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