Budding paleontologist, 8, digs up 5-inch prehistoric shark tooth on a fossil hunt with his family: ‘Find of a lifetime’ is from a megalodon relative that grew to 31ft and lived 22 million years ago

• An eight-year-old boy on vacation with his family discovered a large fossilized shark tooth while digging through gravel and dirt
• The tooth was 4.75 inches and came from an Angustiden shark, a relative of extinct megalodon sharks
• The boy noticed what looked like the edge of a tooth while searching through dirt and gravel piles at a fossil-hunting expedition facility 
• ‘Congratulations kiddo! Truly the find of a lifetime!!!’ the fossil hunting facility said in a Facebook post

An eight-year-old boy on a fossil hunt with his family discovered a large fossilized shark tooth while digging through gravel and dirt.

The boy’s family had stopped by Palmetto Fossil Excursions, an educational fossil-hunting facility in Summerville, South Carolina, when he made the amazing find.

According to the facility, the boy found a 4.75-inch Angustiden tooth in one of their premium gravel layer piles. 

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An eight-year-old boy named Riley discovered a large fossilized shark tooth while digging through gravel and dirt on vacation with his family in South Carolina

‘Any Angustiden over 4′ is the equivalent of finding a 6′ Meg, and an Angustiden at 4.75′ is the equivalent of finding a 6.5′ Megalodon tooth!!’ said the fossil expedition company

‘Any Angustiden over 4′ is the equivalent of finding a 6′ Meg, and an Angustiden at 4.75′ is the equivalent of finding a 6.5′ Megalodon tooth!!’ 

‘Again, congratulations kiddo! Truly the find of a lifetime!!!’ the fossil hunting facility said in a Facebook post. 

The boy, Riley, was walking around the bases of piles of gravel and dirt and came across what looked like the edge of a tooth, his father Justin Gracely explained to Fox News. 

‘We are so proud of Riley,’ he added. 

Palmetto Fossil Excursions congratulated the boy on his find in a Facebook post (above)

Megalodon sharks (above) roamed the seas about 23 to 3.6 million years ago and are also known for their large teeth, just like Otodus angustidens

Pictured: Sammy Shelton, 6, holding a megalodon shark tooth dating to 3 million years ago that he found while he was looking for shells on a British beach in May

Palmetto Fossil Excursions reportedly explained the significance of Riley’s find because of its ‘species, size and condition.’

Otodus angustidens is a species of mega-toothed sharks that lived during the Oligocene and Micene epochs about 33 to 22 million years ago. The sharks are known to have grown to at least 31 feet long.

These sharks are related to the Otodus megalodon, another extinct shark with gigantic teeth.

This isn’t the first time that a child has made such a fascinating discovery.

A 6-year-old boy discovered a megalodon shark tooth dating to 3 million years ago while he was looking for shells on a British beach in May.

Sammy Shelton found the tooth that belongs to the prehistoric shark which specialized in killing whales while on a trip with his father to Bawdsey Beach in Suffolk.

His classmates were blown away when he took the ancient fossil, belonging to the largest shark to ever exist, in for a show and tell presentation.

Megalodons roamed the seas about 23 to 3.6 million years ago, could grow up to 67-feet long and had 250 thick teeth.

His dad Peter Shelton, 60, a retired GP from Bradwell, Norfolk said: ‘People have said it’s a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.

‘Really we were looking for interesting shells on the beach but instead we got this megalodon tooth.

‘It was huge and very heavy. I knew what it was but it wasn’t until I took it to others looking on the beach that I realized the significance.

MEGALODON EXPLAINED

Pictured: Megalodon

The megalodon, meaning big-tooth, lived between 23 and 3.6 million years ago.

O. megalodon is considered to be one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history and fossil remains suggest it grew up to 65 feet long.

It’s thought the monster looked like a stockier version of today’s much feared great white shark and weighed up to 100 tons.

Megalodon is known from fossilized vertebrae and teeth, which are triangular and measure almost eight inches in diagonal length.

Famed fossil hunter Vito ‘Megalodon’ Bertucci took almost 20 years to reconstruct a megalodon’s jaw – largest ever assembled – which measures 11 feet across and is almost 9 feet tall.

The Megalodon’s colossal mouth would have produced a but force of 10.8 to 18.2 tons.

The ancient shark has been described as a super predator, because it could swim at high speeds and kill a wide variety of prey such as sea turtles and whales, quickly in its strong jaws. 

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