MEXICO CITY — Researchers found at least 13 prehistoric shark teeth during a diving expedition in the Xoc cenote, a flooded cave in the Mexican city of Merida.
Mexico City daily Excelsior reported that morphological analysis suggests one of the teeth belonged to a megalodon, a species of giant sharks that lived from about 23 million to 2.5 million years ago.
Megalodons were biggest sharks known to have existed in the world.
A megalodon could grow to as large as 18 meters long and its open jaws were 1.8 meters wide, dwarfing the great white shark, according to National Geographic.
The researchers told Excelsior they found other teeth belonging to the sawshark and mako shark genuses likely originating in the same geological epochs as the megalodon tooth.
Excelsior reported that the Xoc cenote is Merida's third largest flooded cavern and researchers are mapping the cave system. "Xoc" means shark in the Mayan language. A 'cenote' is a natural sinkhole.
Mexico City daily Excelsior reported that morphological analysis suggests one of the teeth belonged to a megalodon, a species of giant sharks that lived from about 23 million to 2.5 million years ago.
Megalodons were biggest sharks known to have existed in the world.
A megalodon could grow to as large as 18 meters long and its open jaws were 1.8 meters wide, dwarfing the great white shark, according to National Geographic.
The researchers told Excelsior they found other teeth belonging to the sawshark and mako shark genuses likely originating in the same geological epochs as the megalodon tooth.
Excelsior reported that the Xoc cenote is Merida's third largest flooded cavern and researchers are mapping the cave system. "Xoc" means shark in the Mayan language. A 'cenote' is a natural sinkhole.
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