SOME SHARK!

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 20, 25 January 1927, Page 9

SOME SHARK!

TOOTH or A MONSTER. ZAXE GREY HOPES. (By Telegraph.—Special to " Star.") WELLINGTON, this day. Fishing in the Pacific has fallen off during the last few centuries, judging by a shark's tooth sent to Mr. Beyer, an Auckland surveyor, by his brother in the South Seas. It is one of a bushel or so of the teeth which filled the mouth of C'archarodon Megalodon, an extinct monster shark which is estimated to have reached a length of 80 feet, the mouth of which when fully open measured 9ft by sft. This dentai relic is not the sort that, may be -worn on the watch chain, as it measures lin in thickness, is 1 7-Sin broad, and is 4in along each side of its triangle. Strangely enough, it is very finely serrated, 25 of the razoredged serrations occupying only half an inch. The nearest living relative is the great white shark, but there is reason from what is known of similar teeth in Sydney Museum to suppose that the huge appeties served by these teeth ceased their final yearnings in comparatively modern times, as H.M.s. Challenger in 1575 dredged such teeth up from 2750 fathoms in company with pumice and manganese modules. The tooth caused great interest on Zane Grey s yacht, and some speculation as to what may be found bv the party in deep-sea pockets of the Pacific j which they will endeavour to explore I piscatorially.