Megalodon: 10-year-old finds ancient tooth fossil on UK beach

Elana has been fossil hunting since she was eight and has built up a huge collection

A 10-year-old girl has discovered a "once-in-a-lifetime" ancient megalodon tooth on a UK beach.

The giant fossilised tooth was found by Elana on a visit to Bawdsey Beach in Suffolk with her family.

After checking in with some scientists, Elana found out that the 10cm-long tooth was around 2 to 6 million-years-old and belonged to a gigantic prehistoric species of shark called megalodon.

Megalodons were enormous fearsome predators who lived in warm oceans millions of years ago, and could grow to be around 19 metres-long - that's three times bigger than a great white shark.

Elana with the megalodon tooth she found on Bawdsey Beach

Speaking about her discovery, Elana said: "When I found it, I was hoping to find sharks teeth but I really wasn't expecting to find a megalodon tooth because they are so rare in the UK."

One of the scientists Elana spoke to was Charlie Underwood from the Natural History Museum, who said that the tooth likely belonged to the Otodus megalodon - which scientists recently discovered were longer, thinner and slower swimming than previously thought "making it look rather different from the scaled up great white that was often thought."

Elana also spoke to Jack Cooper, a PhD student at Swansea University who specialises in megalodons, who told her more about what the shark might have been.

He said: "Based on the tooth's width and its likely position in the jaw, the shark this tooth came from was probably somewhere between 10 and 12 metres (32-40 feet) long when the tooth fell out of its mouth. That's about as big as the biggest basking sharks today; so clearly this tooth belonged to a very large shark indeed; one that was probably still only a young adult and had plenty more growth left too!

"Megalodon teeth can and have been found in Suffolk but have only been reported a couple of times over the last few years, so this is a very rare find indeed for the UK, especially for a tooth as complete as this one is."

An artist's impression of what a megalodon might have looked like

Elana has been collecting fossils since August 2022 when she found a coral fossil on Barafundle Bay Beach in Wales.

Since then Elana has been collecting fossils from all around the UK including the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, Kent, East Anglia and Wales.

"I can't count all the fossils I have found, I have too many!" she said.

"I have hundreds of shark teeth and also ray mouth plates, belemnites, numulites, ammonites, trilobites, shells, corals, crinoid pieces, graptolites and even a crab."

Elana's top fossil hunting tips:

Elana's fossil collection.

• Do some research - Find out which beaches in the UK have a good chance of you finding a fossil. Like the Jurassic Coast in Dorset, Kent, East Anglia and Wales.

• Don't give up! - Keep hunting even if you aren't finding much because I have found really good things after I've been looking for hours.

• Try out tools - You can use a sieve to search through pebbles and mud.

• Stay safe - Always check the tide times and stay away from tall cliffs.