Deepest megalodon tooth

The greatest depth from which the tooth of an extinct megalodon shark (<i>Otodus megalodon</i>) has been retrieved is 3,089 metres (10,134 feet). The fossil was discovered on 22 June 2022 at a site approximately 240 kilometres (150 miles) south of Johnston Atoll. Fossilized megalodon teeth have been found all over the world, but to discover one in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, and at such a great depth, is unprecedented. It was collected as part of a sample of ferromanganese-coated rocks, by a remotely operated vehicle during an expedition by the Ocean Exploration Trust in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument. Only when the samples were analysed was the tooth identified.

The megalodon is the largest ever shark, and perhaps the largest fish ever known to have existed, with upper estimates putting its total length up to 20 m (65 ft), three times that of today's largest predatory fish, the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).

The term "megalodon" aptly means "large tooth"; its teeth could reach 17.8 cm (6.9 in) long.