North Carolina girl finds megalodon shark tooth buried on beach: 'Is this a dream?'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A middle school girl stumbled upon a buried treasure while spending her spring break on a beach in North Carolina.
Avery Fauth and her family love to scour the sand for shark teeth whenever they’re on a beach. But Fauth attributes her recent prehistoric find — a megalodon shark tooth — on North Topsail Beach to luck.
“I’m looking around and I see something buried in the sand,” she told WECT. “I uncovered it and it keeps coming, and it’s this big tooth, and then I hold it up and I’m screaming for my mom.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GREAT WHITE SHARK REVEALS RAZOR-LIKE TEETH AS IT ATTEMPTS TO CHOMP PHOTOGRAPHER’S CAMERA
Fauth’s dad got the family interested in searching for shark teeth.
“I was pretty surprised [that she found one],” he told the news station. “I’ve been looking for 25 years and I haven’t found anything.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I was really shocked and excited for her that she found something that big," he added.
Fauth was also surprised by the find.
“I was just like, 'Is this a dream?' because I didn’t believe I found it,” she said. “They’re really rare to find and they’re some pretty big teeth and they’re pretty cool.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}GREAT WHITE SHARK WEIGHING 1,668 POUNDS SPOTTED OFF FLORIDA PANHANDLE, RESEARCHERS SAY
The megalodon, considered one of, if not the largest marine predator to ever live, had enormous teeth — some approaching nearly 8 inches in length. According to a study published in March, the giant shark spent millions of years sharpening its teeth to become a better predator.
Another recent study, published in February, suggests the megalodon died off around 3.6 million years ago, roughly 1 million years sooner than initially thought. That study also hypothesized that competition from the great white shark contributed to the megalodon’s extinction.
Fox News’ Chris Ciaccia contributed to this report.