World’s Largest Known Set of Shark Jaws
Carcharocles megalodon
Miocene
Ogeechee River, South Carolina
The world’s largest known set of shark jaws originate from Carcharocles megalodon, the most massive carnivorous fish species known. Living sixteen million years ago, the gargantuan species is thought to have grown to lengths approaching the length of the contemporary Blue Whale. Originally from the collection of the late Vito Bertucci, the colossal specimen bears the provenance of this intrepid explorer whose work was covered by National Geographic.
Fifty-one million years after the dinosaurs became extinct, Carcharocles megalodon trolled the Earth’s seas as an apex predator. Much is unknown about megalodon (meaning giant tooth), including its exact size. Scientists differ in their estimates of the length which this marine behemoth may have attained, suggesting linear measures from 40 to 100 feet. Scientists believe that megalodon became extinct approximately five million years ago.
The collector and preparator of the present piece, Mr. Vito Bertucci, earned the moniker, Megalodon Man, over a twenty-year career of passionate underwater fossil hunting. Most widely known for his reconstruction of a Carcharocles megalodon jaw, the topic of a National Geographic television program, the former jeweler, who was also featured in National Geographic World magazine, spent twenty years collecting the 184 fossil shark teeth with which he reconstructed the present meg jaws. A businessman, an adventurer and a passionate promoter of the theory that megalodon attained greater lengths than is commonly thought by some scientists, Mr. Vito Bertucci owned and operated a shark museum in Port Royal, South Carolina. His last notable find--in August of 2004--was the discovery of an enormous, 7 1/4-inch-long, megalodon tooth.
The present specimen comprises 184 fossil shark teeth which have been mounted in a resin reconstruction representing the cartilaginous jaw of Carcharocles megalodon. Four of the teeth are at least seven inches in length. Measures 11 x 8 3/4ft; longest tooth measures 7in.
