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A remotely operated submarine was pull in samples on a antecedently unexplored deep sea mountain when it scooped up a rare megalodon tooth .
The gold - colour tooth , which is 2.7 inches ( 6.8 centimeters ) long , was discovered more than 10,000 feet ( 3,090 meters ) below the open near the Johnston Atoll in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument , around 800 miles ( 1,300 kilometers ) south of the Hawaiian Islands .
A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) collecting the megalodon tooth from a seamount.
Researchers described the find in a study publish Dec. 14 in the journalHistorical Biology . The Ocean Exploration Trust , which led the 2022 hostile expedition that get hold the tooth , has now discharge video detailing the issue .
The find is the first in - situ observation and sample of amegalodontooth in the deep ocean , meaning researchers found the fogey in its original resting space . Most thick - sea fogey are collect by dredge nets along the ocean floor , so investigator miss out on important information such as their accurate positioning , grant to a statement released by the Ocean Exploration Trust on Jan. 4 .
Study conscientious objector - authorNicolas Straube , an associate prof at the University Museum of Bergen in Norway , draw it in the command as an " amazing find . "
The tooth after researchers scraped off a ferromanganese layer it was encased in.
" The dodo was give away at a very remote inscrutable - sea locality from which megalodon fossils are rarely document , " Straube said .
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Megalodon ( Otodus megalodon ) was thelargest shark to have ever lived , uprise up to at least 49 feet ( 15 m ) recollective and potentially up to 65 feet ( 20 m ) long . The monumental marauder were top of the ocean intellectual nourishment range from around 20 million long time ago until their extermination around 3.6 million years ago .
Megalodon teeth are relatively vulgar fossils — each megalodon had around 276 teeth , and they lived in ocean around the world . However , most of these fossils are come across on land near shorelines or rivers rather than in the deep sea , which is seldom explored , harmonise to the financial statement .
Researchers aboard the Ocean Exploration Trust ’s Nautilus geographic expedition vessel were compile samples around the Johnston Atoll in June 2022 to study its thick - ocean geology and biota . They deploy a remotely operated vehicle ( ROV ) called Hercules to film and gather up the sample , which were then sent to the University of Rhode Island for processing .
There , researchers find the tooth in one of the samples and distrust it came from a megalodon . Study Centennial State - authorDave Ebert , a researcher at the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories in California , later confirmed the tooth came from a megalodon .
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Upon review the video recorded by Hercules , the research worker also realise the tooth was visibly sticking out of the sand on the seamount before the ROV shovel it up . Discovering an in - situ tooth on a deep - ocean muckle , or seamount , aid researcher learn more about the mammoth shark ’s sea substance abuse .
" This fogy provide us with authoritative insights into the distribution of megalodon , " study first authorJürgen Pollerspöck , a researcher at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology in Germany , read in the statement .
" The sample show that megalodon was not a purely coastal coinage and that this species migrated across sea basin alike to many modern - 24-hour interval species such as thegreat white shark . "
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