Father and Son Make Shocking Discovery During Beach Vacation

A father-son stroll along the Jersey Shore turned into the discovery of a lifetime when an 11-year-old boy reached into a tiny crevice and pulled out a massive fossilized tooth from one of the most terrifying predators ever to roam the oceans.

Michael Bowers, 42, of Monongahela, Pennsylvania, was vacationing in Sea Isle City, New Jersey, with his son Bo when the pair headed out for a walk along the beach Tuesday.

That’s when something unusual caught their eye near the shoreline.

Michael said they spotted an object wedged inside a narrow crevice, but his hand was too large to reach it. So Bo gave it a shot.

What the boy pulled out left them stunned.

It was a fossilized tooth believed to have come from a megalodon — the enormous prehistoric shark that once dominated the world’s oceans.

“I always seem like I find crazy stuff in the water,” Michael said. “I never in a million years would have guessed that we would have found something like this. My son was speechless.”

Megalodons are believed to have reached lengths of roughly 60 feet, dwarfing even today’s great white sharks. The massive predators disappeared at least 3.6 million years ago, making any surviving fossil a remarkable link to the ancient past.

And there may be a reason the tooth suddenly surfaced on this particular stretch of beach.

A beach replenishment project carried out by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in July brought offshore sand onto the Sea Isle City shoreline. Researchers believe the fossil may have been scooped up from the ocean floor along with that sand before eventually ending up within reach of the Bowers family.

“If the sand came from a few miles offshore, it is very possible the tooth came with it,” researcher Melissa Laurino said.

For Bo, an ordinary beach vacation suddenly came with one incredible souvenir — one that had been buried for millions of years.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime beach find that the Bowers family will treasure for a lifetime,” Laurino said.