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Titanic remains reveal lost gold necklace made from the tooth of a megalodon


A necklace ‘made from the tooth of a megalodon shark’ is revealed in new images from the wreckage of RMS Titanic. 

The stunning artefact – which has not been worn since the ship’s sinking in April 1912 – was identified in footage taken last summer by Guernsey-based firm Magellan Ltd.

The footage was shot during efforts to capture the first digital scans of the shipwreck, which present the wreck almost as if it’s been retrieved from the water. 

Other objects surrounding the necklace have not been identified, although it appears to be surrounded by small ring-shaped beads. 

Magellan Ltd, which is working with Atlantic Productions on a documentary about last year’s expedition, is prohibited from taking them from the sea floor, however.

Deep-sea mapping company Magellan Ltd says the necklace is made from the tooth of a megalodon shark with gold built into it

An estimated 1,517 of the 2,224 people on board Titanic were killed when the luxury ocean liner sank on April 15, 1912. 

Magellan Ltd sent submersibles to survey all parts of the wreck, which lies around 13,000 feet under surface of the North Atlantic Ocean, about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. 

The submersibles spent more than 200 hours last summer taking 700,000 images of every angle of the ship to create the 3D reconstruction. 

Now, the company has noticed the distinctive shape of a shark tooth in the footage, and on closer inspection realised it was a necklace. 

Richard Parkinson, director of Magellan, described the find as ‘astonishing, beautiful and breathtaking.’ 

‘We found a megalodon tooth which is fashioned into a necklace – it’s incredible, it’s absolutely incredible,’ he told ITV News. 

Teeth of the extinct megalodon – one of the largest fish ever to exist – are known to reach over seven inches in length.

It’s unclear how Magellan was able to identify the tooth in the necklace as that of a megalodon, although MailOnline has contacted the firm for more information. 

Catalina Pimiento, a paleontologist at Swansea University who specialises in sharks, said it’s hard to tell if it’s a megalodon tooth without other identifiable objects for scale. 

‘The tooth seems to have a ‘neck’, which is the darker area between the tooth crown and the root,’ she told MailOnline.

‘But because the picture is so low quality, it is hard to see if this is the case.’ 

Teeth of the extinct megalodon – one of the largest fish ever to exist – are known to reach over 7 inches in length. The necklace is circled here in red

Other objects in the image have not been identified, although it seems to be surrounded by small ring-shaped beads 

The footage was shot during efforts to capture the first digital scans of the shipwreck, which present the wreck almost as if it’s been retrieved from the water. Pictured is the ship’s bow, much of which is buried under mud due to the force of impact when it hit the ocean floor in the early hours of April 15, 1912

New digital scans of the Titanic, which lies 3,800m (12,500ft) down in the Atlantic, were created using deep-sea mapping. It provides a unique 3D view of the entire ship, enabling it to be seen as if the water has been drained away

Megalodon teeth vary in colour – from from pink to blue and black – due to depositional sediments in the location where they were found, as well as size. 

What was the megalodon? 

The megalodon (officially called Otodus megalodon and also known as the Meg) was not only the biggest shark in the world, but one of the largest fish ever to exist. 

Estimates suggest it grew to between 49 feet and 59 feet (15 and 18 metres) in length, three times longer than the largest recorded great white shark. 

Without a complete megalodon skeleton, these figures are based on the size of the animal’s teeth, which can reach 7 inches long. 

‘They are of course very large, but you can also find teeth of very young individuals, which can be small, or from the back of the jaw,’ Dr Pimiento said. 

Michael Benton, a professor of vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Bristol, said it’s ‘more likely it would be a tooth from a modern shark rather than a fossil’. 

‘Megalodon teeth cover your hand,’ he told MailOnline. ‘Whether it’s a great white or other modern shark probably can’t be said for sure.’ 

Just like the thousands of personal items at the wreck, the original owner of the necklace is unknown, although it was likely a first class passenger. 

Magellan now plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify owners of the necklace and other objects, and to contact ancestors of the 2,200 people onboard Titanic when it sank.

The AI will study footage of passengers, focusing on their faces and the clothes they were wearing when they boarded the ship, a few days before the Titanic hit the iceberg in the evening of April 14, 1912.

Titanic was cruising at almost full speed –around 22.5 knots or 25 miles per hour – when lookouts spotted the iceberg at 11:40pm that evening. 

Despite efforts to steer her around the obstacle, Titanic struck the iceberg, generating six narrow openings in the vessel’s starboard hull, believed to have occurred as a result of the rivets in the hull snapping. 

Titanic began sinking bow-first, with water spilling from compartment to compartment as her angle in the water became steeper. 

Sinking of the Titanic: Lifeboats row away from the still lighted ship on April 15, 1912, as depicted in this British newspaper sketch

This image from the digital scan project shows stalactites of rust on the ship’s bow, the serial number on a propeller, and a hole over where the grand staircase once stood 

Titanic’s grand staircase was possibly the most famous part of the first-class section of the RMS Titanic. Pictured is the hole over where the staircase was located 

This incredible scan image shows a view of the bow of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. Magellan Ltd is working with Atlantic Productions on a documentary about last year’s expedition

The great ship broke in half just before it made its final plunge in the early hours of April 15, 1912, and now two parts of the ship – the bow and the stern – lie 2,600 feet apart. Pictured is a scan of the bow



This post first appeared on Trends Wide, please read the originial post: here

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