Living on the Georgia/Florida coast one of my favorite hobbies is beach combing. Out of all the shells I collect my favorite is finding sharks teeth. You can make a lot of arts and crafts with sharks’ teeth. They can be used as earrings, necklaces, framing, or collect them in a glass jar. I personally like collecting them and putting them in a jar to display. They truly make great conversation pieces. You may notice a lot of beach gift shops are selling sharks’ teeth and sharks’ teeth arts and crafts that are very expensive. You will be amazed at how much fun it is to find sharks teeth and how quickly they can be found!
Sharks’ Teeth are Fossils
When you find a sharks tooth on the beach you are actually finding a fossil. Sharks have been on earth for around 400 million years. The sharks tooth that you find becomes a fossil after being buried in sediment for around 10,000 years. The tooth is black because of being buried in this sandy sediment.During their lifespan a single shark can lose thousands of its teeth. Usually a shark looses a single tooth after a week and a new one can grow in as fast as 24 hours! The amount of teeth sharks have varies greatly but they have around 5 to 15 rows of teeth in each jaw. So as you can tell if you look on the right beach you can come across many of them on a short beach trip.
Finding Sharks’ teeth
Finding the teeth can be very simple. Usually the best time to look for them is during low tide. Along the shore line you will see shell debris left by the out going tide. As you are walking down the beach look along these areas the debris should follow you all the way down the beach. The receding waters at low tide also expose a wash in which is a 6-12 inch drop in the sand level. Remember to try and look for a morning low tide this means fewer people and your chances of finding them are greater. Looking for sharks teeth after a storm is also a good idea. Ocean storms bring in all kinds of debris from the ocean floor including sharks teeth.
Extra facts about Sharks
Many people are afraid of sharks in the ocean especially after seeing the movie “Jaws”. The actual fact is out of millions of swimmers in the ocean each year only a few hundred are attacked. More people are killed by bee stings then sharks. There are about 350 different species of sharks. Most of these sharks are actually not dangerous.
When you find a sharks tooth on the beach you are actually finding a fossil. Sharks have been on earth for around 400 million years. The sharks tooth that you find becomes a fossil after being buried in sediment for around 10,000 years. The tooth is black because of being buried in this sandy sediment.During their lifespan a single shark can lose thousands of its teeth. Usually a shark looses a single tooth after a week and a new one can grow in as fast as 24 hours! The amount of teeth sharks have varies greatly but they have around 5 to 15 rows of teeth in each jaw. So as you can tell if you look on the right beach you can come across many of them on a short beach trip.
Finding Sharks’ teeth
Finding the teeth can be very simple. Usually the best time to look for them is during low tide. Along the shore line you will see shell debris left by the out going tide. As you are walking down the beach look along these areas the debris should follow you all the way down the beach. The receding waters at low tide also expose a wash in which is a 6-12 inch drop in the sand level. Remember to try and look for a morning low tide this means fewer people and your chances of finding them are greater. Looking for sharks teeth after a storm is also a good idea. Ocean storms bring in all kinds of debris from the ocean floor including sharks teeth.
Extra facts about Sharks
Many people are afraid of sharks in the ocean especially after seeing the movie “Jaws”. The actual fact is out of millions of swimmers in the ocean each year only a few hundred are attacked. More people are killed by bee stings then sharks. There are about 350 different species of sharks. Most of these sharks are actually not dangerous.
