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A shark the size of a semi truck swims through the sea . feel prey ahead , the monster attack , open up a mouth crowing than a subway elevator car turn sideways , and line with teeth the size of a man ’s script .
Fiction ? scarcely . Ancient history ? Absolutely .
Plenty of standing room: Carcharocles megalodon was the largest shark that ever lived on Earth.
And next month , anyone with a trim half - million dollar or so can make a fun for the most striking remains of these prehistoric creatures ever discovered .
The world’slargest shark jaw , 9 feet ( 2.7 meters ) tall and 11 feet ( 3.4 meters ) across , goes up for sale on June 21 , at Heritage Auctions in Dallas , Texas .
The jaws are construct with 182 fossilized tooth of the world ’s largest shark , Carcharocles megalodon , which go extinct about 2 million year ago . They present the life work of Vito Bertucci , a jeweler - wrench - dodo hunter who spent nearly two decade searching for the monumental teeth used in the jaw .
Plenty of standing room: Carcharocles megalodon was the largest shark that ever lived on Earth.
minimal bid is $ 625,000 , but the jaws are expected to bring in up to $ 700,000 , allot to David Herskowitz , managing director of Heritage ’s born chronicle department .
The jaw has four shark ’s teeth that are more than 7 inch ( 18 centimeters ) long — an utmost rarity . " I think there are credibly less than 10 known in existence , " Herskowitz say .
mystic monstrosity
For 1000000 of year , C. megalodon , one of the large predators to ever survive on Earth , trolled nearly all the planet ’s sea . Researchers have get grounds of the jumbo sharks stretching back 20 million yr , but the species go away from the fossil record about 2 million years ago .
The sharks went extinct at a clock time whenglacierscovered bombastic swath of the globe , " and some people think that may be related to the extinction of this specie , but it has n’t been established , " say Catalina Pimiento , aMegalodonresearcher with the University of Florida and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute .
Like shark alive today , the prehistoricMegalodon ’s skeleton was made of cartilage , not osseous tissue , so the creatures left little behind for researchers to consider . " The only remain you may find in the fogy phonograph record are the teeth , because they ’re hard enough to preserve through geologic time , " Pimiento say .
Although that may not seem like much to go on , scientists have been able to use equations based on their noesis ofgreat white shark physiology — the modern - Clarence Day species that most closely resembles Megalodon — to generalise just how big the ancient shark grew .
The jaw up for sales event in June would interpret a truly monstrous shark . One that , according to Heritage Auctions , would have been 60 feet ( 18 m ) long — a declamatory specimen , even for outsize Megalodons .
Shark daydream
Vito Bertucci set the fossilise teeth in their massive fibreglass frame more than 15 years ago . With the assist of researchers , Bertucci base the dimensions and contingent of the jaw ongreat white sharks .
A gemologist and a jeweler by trade , and an avid scuba diver , Bertucci ’s Passion of Christ for shark tooth fossils finally outshone his other pursuits . He spend class combing the mirky rivers and lakes of South Carolina for the prehistoric treasures .
" You could go to a wedding , he ’d be in a dinner jacket , and he ’d force one of these elephantine teeth out of his pocket , " state Joseph Bertucci , Vito ’s brother , who still live where the brother grew up on Long Island .
Vito died in October 2004 , drowned in a muddy river in Georgia , look for for the tooth he loved to run . It ’s not open what go ill-timed , but scuba dive weather condition were dangerous .
" It ’s like diving in a cup of coffee bean . You ca n’t see your hand in front of you , " Bertucci said .
Vito ’s body surfaced four days after he disappeared . He had four Megalodon tooth in his pocketbook when he was found .
Although Vito build several other jaws from his fossils — they are on display in the American Museum of Natural account in New York , and at the Baltimore Aquarium , among other places — Joseph Bertucci said his brother always wanted to sell the largest jaw he ever built , but could never find a purchaser with cryptic enough pouch .
Joseph aver he hop the tremendous jaws will obtain a new home seed June .
" It ’s kind of semisweet , " Bertucci said . " I bonk that he loved this matter . "
