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Massive newly-discovered Megalodon tooth gives chilling hint about the beast's capacity to kill

An 11-year-old boy who discovered a terrifying megalodon tooth on a US beach with his father admits he was left 'scared' by the massive fossil, but still hopes to keep it

[This terrifying tooth was found on America's Jersey Shore ]

This terrifying tooth was found on America's Jersey Shore (Image: CBS News)

A massive megalodon tooth discovered by a young boy shows exactly how deadly the extinct ocean monster would have been. 11-year-old Bo Bowers made the extraordinary find along with his dad Mike while digging through rocks on America's Jersey Shore.

According to the dino-loving dad, the pair had stumbled upon the scary looking tooth inside a small crevice in the rocks, but Michael needed his son's small hands to reach in and grab the extraordinary fossil.

Speaking to US news station WGAL, Mike explained the moment the father-son duo realised what they had stumbled upon. Mike, 42, said: "As I pulled a shell out of the one rock, there was a hole in the rock.

[The father and son posing with the amazing find]

The father and son posing with the amazing find(Image: Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center/Facebook)

"I looked down and I was just astonished, but I couldn't fit my hand in there. So of course I'm screaming like a crazy man over there for my son Bo to come running over because of his small hand."

The tooth's co-discover Bo says he was "excited" but "scared" of doing so, adding that he hoped he would be able to keep the gigantic find after researchers had completed their study of it.

He said: "I was just really excited at first. I was scared to put my hand down to, like, see it."

[ megalodon toothYou wouldn't to be bitten by one of these things]

megalodon toothYou wouldn't to be bitten by one of these things(Image: Cape May Whale Watch and Research Center/Facebook)

Mike, who is a keen hobby fossil hunter, admitted that finding a megalodon tooth had always been on his bucket list, but he never thought he would discover one like this.

I always seem like I find crazy stuff in the water, but I never in a million years would have guessed that we would have found something like this. My son was speechless.

The find, which measures around 10cm in length, is bigger than any living sharks' tooth, and would have contributed the megalodon's terrifyingly powerful bite, which could exert as much as 18 tonnes of force, ten times that of a great white shark and stronger than any other animal.

[Megalodons could grow up to 60ft in length and had a terrifyingly powerful bite (stock)]

Megalodons could grow up to 60ft in length and had a terrifyingly powerful bite (stock)(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

The find, which was later confirmed by experts at the Cape May Whale Watch and Research Centre, is being treated as a deeply significant one, as while megalodon teeth fragments are found fairly often, discovering a complete specimen is extremely rare and could shed further light on the terrifying 60ft shark's eating habits.

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