Megalodon Shark Tooth

The megalodon shark tooth is North Carolina's official state fossil, designated in 2013. Otodus megalodon was the largest predatory shark in Earth's history, and North Carolina's coastal plain holds some of the richest deposits of its teeth in the world. The phosphate-rich Miocene and Pliocene marine sediments near Aurora in Beaufort County have produced thousands of megalodon teeth along with the bones of the whales it hunted.

Otodus megalodon is estimated to have reached up to 50 feet in length, dwarfing any living shark. Its teeth could exceed 7 inches from root to tip — the largest of any known shark. Like all sharks, megalodon had a cartilaginous skeleton that rarely fossilizes, so teeth are almost all that survive. A single individual could produce tens of thousands of teeth over its lifetime as worn teeth were continuously replaced.

Megalodon was an apex predator that targeted large whales, dolphins, and sea turtles. Studies of its jaw structure suggest one of the most powerful bite forces of any predatory animal. It preferred warm coastal and offshore waters and ranged across every ocean. The species died out about 3.6 million years ago, likely as global ocean temperatures cooled and the large whale populations it depended on shifted toward colder waters.

North Carolina students drove the 2013 designation. A group of middle school students petitioned the General Assembly to give the state an official fossil, pointing to the megalodon tooth as the obvious choice. Their campaign succeeded and the legislature designated the megalodon shark tooth in 2013, making it one of the more recent state fossil designations in the country.

The choice reflects North Carolina's unusually rich Miocene and Pliocene marine record. The Lee Creek Mine near Aurora — one of the world's largest phosphate mines — has exposed layer after layer of Miocene and Pliocene seafloor sediment since the 1960s, yielding megalodon teeth by the thousands along with whale skulls, ray plates, and other marine fossils.

The Aurora area in Beaufort County is the center of North Carolina's megalodon territory. The Lee Creek Mine (now operated by Nutrien) has produced more megalodon teeth than almost any other single site in the world, though the mine itself is not open to the public. The adjacent Aurora Fossil Museum maintains a fossil-collecting area where visitors can search for megalodon teeth in material excavated from the mine.

Megalodon teeth also wash onto North Carolina's barrier island beaches after storms, particularly along the Crystal Coast and Cape Fear coastlines where Miocene and Pliocene sediments are close to the surface. The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh has megalodon material in its collection.