"Find of a Lifetime": 8-Year-Old Vacationing in South Carolina Discovers Giant Fossilized Shark Tooth
Palmetto Fossil Excursions
A young tourist came home from a family vacation in South Carolina with the "find of a lifetime" earlier this month.
Riley Gracely, 8, of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, was vacationing with his parents and brother in Myrtle Beach when they ventured out to Palmetto Fossil Excursions, an educational fossil-hunting expedition facility in Summerville.
There, Riley "was walking around the bases of these piles of gravel and dirt and noticed what he thought was the edge of a tooth," his father Justin told Fox News.
It was a giant, fossilized shark tooth.
"When he pulled it out, he was so excited," Justin recalled.
According to a post on the Palmetto Fossil Excursions Facebook page, Riley had discovered a 4.75-inch angustiden tooth. And it was a big one.
"Just to give perspective—any angustiden [tooth] over 4" is the equivalent of finding a 6" meg[alodon tooth]," the caption explains. "Congratulations kiddo! Truly the find of a lifetime!!!"
Angustidens were a prehistoric megatoothed shark that lived about 33 million to 22 million years ago. They are believed to have been a close relative of megalodons, an extinct prehistoric shark that's thought to be the largest shark species ever to live.
Congratulations, Riley!
