DePaul University/Jeff Carrion
Kenshu Shimada
Skye Basak is up to her elbows in mud. After hours of digging, she pries loose a stone, revealing a shark tooth that’s 16 centimeters (6 inches) long. A tooth that big could be from just one shark: a giant prehistoric one called a megalodon!
Basak is a hunter who runs a company called Palmetto Fossil Excursions in Summerville, South Carolina. She often shares the fossils she finds with a local museum for research. Megalodon teeth are some of Basak’s favorite fossils to dig up. They can be three times as large as those of great white sharks!
Kenshu Shimada is a scientist at DePaul University in Chicago who studies fossils to learn about prehistoric life. In recent years, he has used megalodon teeth, like the ones Basak finds, to better understand this massive fish!