How to Find Sharks Teeth at the Beach

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By Lisa A Jarvis
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Treasured finds...

When all was quiet one afternoon, I got worried and had to find out what my rambunctious duo was up to. Surprisingly, they were happily occupied by digging and sifting for shark’s teeth.

These dark teeth found on shores in pieces and sometimes whole are fossils. Since sharks are cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes) and lack bone, usually the only remains of ancient sharks are their teeth.

Anywhere in the sandy Coastal Plain of East Coast beaches is good for finding fossil shark teeth because it was once the bottom of the ocean, as was most of today’s Atlantic Coastline.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Plastic beach shovel
Shifter pan
Beach

Step 1

Think of panning for gold. Simply, pick your spot on the beach and start sifting.
Step 2

Place sand by the shovelfuls into a sifter pan and shake to see what you discover. Maybe shells, maybe shark's teeth...
Step 3

My daughter's collecion has just begun.

Repeat Step 1 & 2:)

Serious searchers may prefer a very low tide especially, after a good storm that stirred up the sea floor and fossils (or shells), which are then deposited on shore by the currents. The lowest and highest tides correspond with the full and new moons.

Tips & Warnings

Spoil or dredge islands are sites where the siphoned contents from navigational channels have been deposited making them potentially good fossil foraging spots, too.
Beach shell shops usually carry shark’s teeth too, if the excavation was unsuccessful.
This could be an educational activity - Future Paleontologist? or Archeologist? ...
Sharks are believed to have appeared in the warm, shallow seas of the Devonian period during the Paleozoic Era or about 405 million years ago. There is also evidence of ancestors of present-day sharks in the Mesozoic Era (i.e. Middle Life or the Age of Reptiles), which is divided into the popularized Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods and into Cenozoic Era (or the Age of Mammals).
Cladoselache is an example of a four foot long shark of the Devonian period, while Pleuracanthus was a two and one-half foot long, freshwater shark of the Pennsylvanian and Permian periods (late Paleozoic Era - about 310 to 230 million years ago). But the forty to fifty foot long Carcharodon of the Miocene period (Cenozoic Era) are treasured finds.
Carcharodon megalodon is the ancestor of today’s Great White shark (Carcharodon carcharis). The triangular teeth have serrated edges and average around two inches long, but can be as large as seven inches.
“It is estimated that a [present-day] Tiger shark, for example, produces up to 24,000 teeth in a ten-year period! Sharks not only have rows of functioning teeth in place; they also maintain five to fifteen rows of backup teeth. Sharks do not have to wait until they grow new teeth to replace lost ones: As functional front teeth are lost, reserve teeth move forward to replace them,” according to Peter Meyer in Nature Guide to the Carolina Coast.