A 13-year-old from Hemel Hempstead was overjoyed when he discovered a ten-centimetre-long megalodon tooth on his annual fossil-hunting trip with his father.
Avid fossil fan Ben, who also frequents the Jurassic Coast in search of ancient remnants, wants to be a palaeontologist when he is older and said that the giant tooth – estimated to be from 20 million to 3.6 million years old – was a ‘great addition' to his collection.
Ben and his father, Jason, had been fossil-hunting at Walton-on-the-Naze after arriving on Friday 28 July, and had clocked up an impressive 16 miles of exploring along the coastline. On Sunday 30 July at 7am, he struck paydirt, spotting the edge of the tooth poking out from under a rock.
Staff at Essex Wildlife Trust's nearby Discovery Centre confirmed that their find was indeed a megalodon tooth – and that intact ones, like the one found, were a ‘rare find'. Several have been found at The Naze, but more commonly, it is only fragments of the giant teeth.
Photo credit: Family photograph
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