World’s largest shark jaws to be auctioned
March 23rd, 2011 - 7:40 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattDallas, Mar 23 (THAINDIAN NEWS) Scientists have managed to complete the giant jaw of a shark which has its teeth set intact. The jaw which is large enough to swallow several humans whole would be auctioned off in Texas in June.
The teeth belong to the biggest shark known to have lived in the ancient times. Megalodons roamed the waters about 1.5 million to 25 million years back. Scientists estimate that the size of the sharks grew to as much as that of 2 city buses. That makes them massive meaning whales and dolphins would just be a snack for such a creature.
The teeth were collected by an amateur fossil hunter Vito Bertucci. Bertucci spent about 20 years collecting the teeth on the shores of South Carolina and Georgia. Bertucci died in a car accident back in 2004 at the age of 47.
The starting bid for the jaw which has 182 teeth is $625,000. The only problem is that some experts have questioned the accuracy of the jaw. One such expert is Kenshu Shimada at DePaul University. Kenshu believes that the size of the jaw has been exaggerated.
He said that, “The problem here is the size… That’s highly, highly over-exaggerated.”
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Tags: 5 million, accuracy, bertucci, biggest shark, car accident, city buses, depaul university, dolphins, fossil hunter, million years, scientists, shark jaws, sharks, shimada, snack, south carolina, teeth, whales and dolphins