Megalodon: a gift from an American friend...

For some time I've been supplying meteorites to an ex-USN Captain, who lives in South Carolina. He's a keen diver and recently sent me these fossil sharks' teeth that he discovered in rills on the ocean floor. Apparently the currents move them across the sand until they drop into these gullies, where they have been collecting for tens of thousands of years. All three teeth date back to the end of the Pliocene, about 2.6 million years ago and are in remarkably good condition. Fascinating to reflect that Megalodon, the largest ever shark to swim in the Earth's oceans, lived alongside two species that still exist: the Great White Shark and the Mako Shark. It's intriguing to consider the possibility that somewhere out there  might still be a population of these fabulous creatures.

The painting is an oil I did for a friend of mine who has a collection of Meg teeth, some of which are twice as large as the one I'm holding in the photo!