Megalodon - scientific name Otodus megalodon - was a shark that lived from roughly 23 million to 3.6 million years ago, during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. It was not just a big shark. It was the largest shark that ever lived, and by most estimates, one of the largest predatory fish in the history of life on Earth. Scientific estimates place its maximum length at somewhere between 50 and 65 feet. Megalodon teeth are typically dark black, gray, or brown from the process of fossilization - minerals slowly replace the original tooth material over millions of years, turning them to stone while preserving every serration, every curve, every detail of the original structure.
