Rare Jersey Shore Find Leaves Family Speechless

Peering into a tight rock crevice on a New Jersey beach, Pennsylvania vacationer Michael Bowers spotted something that had him "screaming like a crazy man." The beachcomber visiting Sea Isle City at low tide had just removed a shell from a rock when he saw what appeared to be a large shark tooth in the hole left behind, per Gulf Coast News. He enlisted his 11-year-old son, Bo, to reach in, and what came out was no ordinary shark tooth: it was a fossilized tooth from a megalodon, the giant shark that vanished roughly 3.6 million years ago.

The Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center confirmed the ID and says the tooth likely arrived with sand dredged from offshore for a recent beach replenishment project, NJ.com reports. It's a rare find; the New Jersey State Museum has logged fewer than five megalodon teeth found in the state. Bowers, a scuba diver who'd considered a trip to North Carolina to hunt for such fossils, says this "once-in-a-lifetime" discovery left his son speechless—no diving required. He tells CBS News the 4-inch tooth has a "big chip on the end," likely from the animal biting into something.