A teenage boy from Hemel Hempstead is believed to have found a shark tooth that is millions of years old.
Ben Evans, 13, found the 10cm megalodon tooth on the Essex coast at Walton-on-the-Naze during a summer holiday.
A megalodon is an extinct shark that is considered to be the biggest fish that ever lived. They had an average length of 10.2 metres and weighed between 30 and 65 metric tons.
Essex Wildlife Trust said the tooth would be from 20 million to 3.6 million years old.
Jason, Ben’s dad, said that his son was “over the moon, jumping for joy, laughing, bouncing” following his discovery.
Speaking to ITV, Ben added: “We were just looking on the beach for little shark teeth, not expecting to find anything big. We decided to walk down to the rocks at one end of the beach, because people had said they’d found big teeth there.
“So we went down there and we looked in the rocks, and we just saw the tooth there, just lying in the rocks.”
Essex Wildlife Trust confirmed that the tooth was from a megalodon shark.
In a statement, they said: “Pre-historic fossils are found often at the Naze, and we also run fossil-hunting events for those who are interested.
“We do sometimes have fragments of megalodon teeth found, but a whole tooth has only been found on a few occasions.”
The Natural History Museum was less sure about its authenticity.
They said: “This tooth shows little corrosion and its crown is near pristine and it looks like it may have been restored.
“To us, this looks very similar to fossils found in Java which are regularly sold in UK fossil shops. We believe it may have been lost on the beach.”
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