NC Coast is hot spot for prehistoric Megalodon shark teeth

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, N.C. — The North Carolina coast is becoming a well-known hot spot for finding giant prehistoric Megalodon teeth, according to Channel 9's partners WTVD.

"It's really rare," marine biologist and owner of WB Diving, Chris Slog, told WTVD. "In North Carolina, we're really lucky and specifically Wilmington, it's one of a few places in the world where you can find the Megalodon teeth in those numbers."

Slog said the teeth have been found all over the world, but not in the concentrations found off the North Carolina coast.

Slog leads divers to "Megalodon Tooth Ledges" from 26 to 40 miles off the coast of Wrightsville Beach. He said those areas are concentrated for the teeth of these prehistoric sharks, which went extinct about two million years ago.

"These ledges are actually ancient river beds," Slog explained to WTVD. "You can see, if you look at a chart they're meandering rivers out there that used to be land at one point and now the oceans filled it in, so it is 110 feet underwater."

The dives for the teeth are more than 100 feet down and Slog said there are strong currents, so finding a tooth is very exciting.

"It's just like looking for gold," he said.

Teeth measuring more than six inches are valuable, some worth thousands of dollars.

While diving for Megalodon teeth requires advanced certification, WTVD reported that there is an area on land -- Aurora, North Carolina -- that used to be home to a phosphate mine full of fossils, including the Megalodon teeth.

The Aurora Fossil Museum is a popular spot for fossil fans to visit to learn and hunt as the museum maintains two fossil pits in the Fossil Park located directly across the street from the main museum.

According to the website, visitors are allowed to collect fossils and keep what they find as a memento of their visit to Aurora. The pits are open from dawn to dusk daily and are filled with mine tailings where small shell, coral, shark tooth and other fossils are relatively easy to find.

Cox Media Group