dark waters of a river in search of giant Megalodon shark teeth! Welcome to Jonathan Birds Blue World! The Great White Shark is one of the most fearsome
predators in the sea. Reaching the size of a large car, the Great
White is a formidable shark. But a few million years ago, there was a much
larger, much more powerful shark roaming the worlds oceans: the Megalodon. A present day Great White shark reaches 21
feet in lengththats about 7 meters.
It dwarfs a human. But the Megalodon would dwarf a Great White. Experts think they reached 20 meters! Which would make them the largest sharks of
all time. In the distant past when the Earth was hotter
than it is today and the sea levels were higher, Megalodon roamed the oceans feeding on whales.
Like modern sharks, they had a never-ending
supply of teeth. When they chomped a whale, teeth would break
off and sink down to the mud in the sea floor. Buried in mud under pressure, the teeth slowly
turned into fossils as minerals impregnated them. As the planet cooled down, sea levels fell.
Megalodon went extinct. As the oceans receded, untold millions of
fossilized shark teeth in the sediment washed into rivers. This particular riverthe Cooper River in
South Carolina--is one of the worlds most famous places to find Megalodon teeth. Cameraman Tim, field producer Al Bozza and
I fly to Charleston, where the Cooper River empties into the ocean.
Were here to meet Alan Devier, a world
authority on finding fossilized shark teeth. Just after sunrise, Alan is putting his boat
in the water at the local boat ramp. Were on a double missionto make a segment
about finding fossil Megalodon teeth, but hopefully also to find some of our own! The boat is a little cramped with all our
camera and scuba gear, but well make it work. We have a 30 minute run to the dive site,
so I use the opportunity to ask Alan about shark tooth diving.
The Meg tooth is the top collected fossil
in the world. If you go on eBay, theres literally thousands
of them for sale. Why do people collect these things? Something about a giant shark I think, and
being able to hold that tooth in your hand. You figure ten feet of shark for every inch
of tooth, so a six inch tooth would have been a shark the size of a school bus.
Thats almost hard to wrap your head around. You never know what you are going to find,
from fossils to artifacts. You find bottles from the early 1700s here,
pipe stems, arrow heads, spear points. Its like an Easter egg hunt with lots more
than Easter eggs.
Its an adventure, Ill say that. I love it. Its my passion. As we cruise through the chocolate brown water,
I cant help but wonder how Im going to dive in this river.
So Alan, whats the diving like? What are we going to do today? Were going to anchor and let you guys go
down the anchor line. Hopefully well have great vizwhich is
two feet maybe. Two feet is great viz? Two feet is great. Three feet is marvelous! Well get you to wear as much weight as
you can lift safely.
That will definitely help with the current,
and give you a screwdriver to use as a spike to stab into the ground to help pull yourself
forward. And try to put you on some good gravel beds
that have a lot of teeth in them. As we head upstream and the river gets narrower,
Im noticing not just the color of the water, but the speed of the water. I dont think I have enough hands to hold
my big camera, a screwdriver, a light and look for fossils at the same time! I need a gear reduction plan.
This is what I have been reduced to. Ive been shooting with a $50,000 RED, Ive
shot with 70mm IMAX cameras and on this shoot, Im shooting with a GoProwith a handle
though! It has a handle, so its going to be really
steady I hope . And youve got a viewfinder. Yeah, its got a viewfinder! Its not just totally shooting blind.
Cameraman Tim has decided to go hands-free. This is Cameraman Tim with the dorkiest, the
dorkiest-looking camera setup ever. Turn your head to the side. The mask chin strap, made from a mask strap.
Any port in a storm. Alan throws the anchor and we are ready for
some river diving! With a few last minute pointers, our team
is ready to suit up, and hit the water. I have to admit, Im feeling pretty nervous. This might be the murkiest water I have ever
been diving in.
This one makes me go right straight to the
bottom like a brick. Andits slimming! Whew, a little hot butoh yeah that light
is awesome. Ive got my light for hands-free fossil
hunting. And then Ive got this implementkind
of a rake thing, not only for raking but also for holding on, its my anchor.
Its like pea soup! I literally cant see my feet. I pull myself down the anchor line against
the current. Its really hard work. The water is brownish yellow and it gets darker
with every pull on the rope.
I cant see the surface or the bottom. The rope is my only reference. It doesnt take long to reach the anchor. Down here, its pitch black.
If I turn my light off, I cant see anything. Im waiting here for Cameraman Tim. Tim arrives shortly and we set off up stream
to find the gravel bed where the shark teeth are supposed to be. We can barely see each other! Were using old screwdrivers to anchor ourselves
into the bottom and crawl against the flow of the river.
We finally reach the gravel bed and start
looking for teeth. I see a lot of rocks, and some shells, but
so far no sharks teeth. But Im not really sure what to look for. Tim and I need to stay within an arms reach
distance or we will lose each other in the murk.
The diving is really spooky. When I see my first tooth, I realize that
they are pretty obvious. There it is! Half a tooth sitting right on the bottom! I put it in my bag and continue on. Bolstered by my newfound success, I decide
to try the rake.
But it really doesnt help at all. The nice thing about the current is the fact
that it will take away any mess I make. So I try waving the top layer away with my
hand. It works much better than the rake.
Soon I find another tooth fragment. Its half a tooth, split right down the
middle. After an hour of searching for teeth, Tim
and I surface. Neither of us found anything really spectacular,
but we got a feel for the process and got used to working in the current and limited
visibility.
Its so nice to see the sun when we surface! So this is kind of an unusual style of diving. First of all, the current is ripping. Were in a river and so the water is really
moving. So right now I have to hold this rope just
to stay by the side of the boat.
If I let go, Ill go sailing away. Then the next thing is that the water is kind
of like chocolate milk. You cantheres my fin. Heres my fin.
And as you put it underwater, you will notice
that it very quickly goes out of sight. And the fact is that I cant even see my
foot underwater. So, I would say the viz is aboutlet me
put my hand outI can just see my hand that far away. Its really murky! So when you are looking for fossils, this
light is really important because its right focused on the bottom and you have to look
at the bottom from, like, less than a foot away.
You just have your face jammed right up on
the bottom looking for the fossils. Its challenging! But its rewarding! Soon we are off to another spot in a different
part of the river. Everywhere we look, its beautiful. Next we suit up for another dive.
Ready? OK, here we go! Yeah! Its time to descend back down into the
darkness and get serious about finding some shark teeth! Uh oh, I need my lights! Its hard to believe that the visibility
could be any worse than it was at the last spot, but its much worse here! The visibility is measured in inches. Tim and I try to communicate by talking because
we cant see each others hand signals! Talking isnt working either! The good news is that Alan put us right on
an excellent gravel bed and this spot looks very promising for fossils. I immediately find a small but complete tooth. And then another.
They are not buried but sitting right on top. As the current moves silt downstream, new
fossils are always being uncovered. Im using Alans lucky pink catch bag
with the Velcro closure so I wont lose my precious stash! I find another half tooth. It has perfect serrations.
I have to wonder. Did this tooth break like this when the shark
lost it? Or did it break later, and the fossil formed
like this? Or did the fossil form and then break in half? We will never know. In the bag it goes. As I wave some silt away, I find a perfect
specimen! Its not huge and it has marine growth that
I can clean off, but this is great tooth! In the bag! Fossil hunting requires patience.
But its actually really peaceful and relaxing
to just work my way slowly and methodically over the gravel bed. The best technique is to work a grid pattern
so you cover every bit of the bed. And my patience pays off with a really big
tooth in perfect condition! This one is at least four, maybe even five
inches. Nowhere near the size of the biggest one Alan
has ever found, which was 6-3/4 inches! When I put this tooth in the bag, I double
check to make sure that Velcro is closed! I would cry if I lost this tooth! Alan, this was a great spot! I finally got something! Awesome! It has weight to it! Yeah! Oh wow! Oh nice! Huh? Whos the man? Thats awesome! I legitimately found those! We didnt even fake it! Thats great! Theyre not in the greatest shape.
Oh this one is. Which one? This one. Oh thats nice, Its got some barnacle
action. Its got some serrations too.
Thats a really cool position too. In the gravel? You must have been in a different gravel patch
than me. No, I was just there first! Wow! So I think someone likes this spot. The rake is just like 95% for holding on to
the bottom.
I didnt really rake that much. We find more than just Megalodon teeth. In fact there are shark teeth even older than
that. So Alan, what did you say this species of
shark was? Angustidens.
And thats pre-Megalodon? Two generations. And theres Chubb, which is one generation,
like the father to the Meg. And Angustidens which is like the grandfather
to the Meg. And you can tell that because of these little? Because of the cusps.
These cusps on the side. Wow, so that puts this at how old are we talking
on this tooth? Probably 20 million plus. Twenty million years old! Twenty MILLION years old! Look at that! And the serrations are still sharp! Wow, thats awesome. Nice find Al.
Thats nice. Thank you. And the three of these were clumped together
on the bottom. So were these three.
You know, I found the first one and I said
Oh, maybe there are some more around here! And so I just looked.. Its shows you this area hadnt been picked
over for you to find them in clusters like that. This ones still got a little bit of serration
on it. Underwater, I focused on digging, but back
on the boat I can really take some time to check out all the teeth I found, and its
really exciting, like finding them again.
So this ones over four inches. See the measurements on the bag? Yuh, oh so thats how you measure them. Well, that gives you a ballpark. Its not perfect because its a stretchy
bag.
Its over four, ha ha! Got one over four. This ones almost four. Well maybe if you measure the other side,
its over four. There we go! Ha! Always measure the longest side! Wait! This ones over four.
Ive got three of them over 4. On one dive! Thats pretty cool! In two days of diving with Alan on the Cooper
River, I find dozens of teeth, including three that are larger than four inches and one that
is larger than five. Not too bad for my first time fossil hunting. The Cooper River has been an awesome experience.
The diving is challenging. The visibility is bad. The current is a constant concern. But when you get on a prime gravel bed and
you start finding teeth, none of that matters.
The hunt for the next tooth is addictive. Sometimes the blue world isnt very blue
at all. But I cant wait to come back and do it
again!.
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