Beginner’s guide to shark tooth hunting in NC

Whenever I have a day off (or even a couple of hours) you will most likely find me on the beach. Either soaking up rays on a blanket, jumping in the waves, or combing the piles of shells for treasures. One of my favorite things to find is fossilized shark teeth. The little black triangles are not always easy to find, but once you know what to look for and how, you will be surprised at how often you come home from the beach with ancient treasures. When I first moved down to North Carolina I had heard about all of the great shark tooth hunting here and tried so hard to find some of my own, but to no avail. It wasn’t until after I learned these tips and tricks that I started finding them. Before I get into how and where to look for shark teeth, let’s dig into how they ended up here in the first place. 

Where did all these shark teeth come from anyway?

 Most of the shark teeth that we find washed up on the North Carolina shore are not from sharks living today, but instead from sharks that lived millions of years ago. Sharks and their ancestors have been around for a long time. A very long time. It is believed that sharks and their ancestors have been around for 450 million years. Sharks are cartilaginous fish. This means that instead of bones, their skeletons are composed of cartilage (the same material as a human’s nose and ears). Because this skeleton is soft, it does not fossilize well. Since shark teeth are harder it is typically these remains of sharks that become fossils. Sharks are constantly growing new teeth to replace old ones. Because of this, they can lose thousands of teeth in one lifetime. That’s a lot of potential fossils! 

How to find shark teeth. 

If you are looking for shark teeth on the beach it is best to go an hour or two before low tide as the water is still receding. Keep your eyes peeled for shiny black triangles (some of them are very small!) Look through piles of shell pieces or rocks carefully and you just might find one. It can also be helpful to walk the beach after a storm or any other event that moves around sediment on the bottom of the ocean. One thing that results in a lot of shark teeth on the beach is dredging. Dredging is when the bottom of the ocean or a river is dug up and the sediment is placed on the beach or an island. One of the best places to find shark teeth are dredge spoil islands. This is because when they dredge the river or the ocean they dig up lots of fossils and shells that have been buried for a long time. Wilmington Outdoor Adventures offers an incredible opportunity to kayak out to a dredge spoil island on the Cape Fear River where you are almost sure to find some incredible shark teeth and other fossils. On this island you could find teeth from tiger sharks, great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, and maybe even a megalodon! It’s a great way to get into shark tooth hunting because the guides will also help to point you in the right direction and show you what to look for. The guides will also help you with shark tooth identification. Once you start finding fossils you won’t be able to stop!