CULLMAN, Ala. (AP) – It was a find of mammoth proportions.
Cullman police officer David Brooks was diving in the shallow waters of Venice Beach, Florida, “The Shark Tooth Capital of the World,” eyes alert for hidden treasures. He had dived here before, along with others from the North Alabama Dive Center, and recovered shark teeth and the giant teeth of megalodons – the largest shark to ever prowl the seas, now extinct.
“We find stuff like teeth and other fossils,” he said.
On this dive, on Saturday Aug. 7, he noted about four square inches of something sticking up from where he was diving about 30 feet under water.
“I didn’t know what it was, it kind of looked funky,” he said. “I noticed it wasn’t a rock and it wasn’t something normal. So I decided to start digging and revealing more and more of it.”