3D model of a Megalodon Tooth (NHMW-GEO-1866/0001/0027)

3D scan of an Otodus (Carcharocles) megalodon tooth. This specimen comes from St. Margarethen in Austria, and is about 9 cm long. Megalodon means “big tooth”, and this species is an extinct species of shark that lived during the Miocene to the Pleistocene (23 to 3.4 million years ago). Its genus placement is still debated, authors placing it in either Carcharocles, Megaselachus, Otodus or Procarcharodon. Teeth are one of the most common fossils of sharks that can be found. Sharks are cartilaginous fish, which means that their skeleton is not build out of bones, but of cartilage which degrades with time.