Fossil collecting is an art with its own intricacies and nuances, one of which is pricing. Today, we’ll delve into how Megalodon teeth are classified for commercial use.

Megalodon teeth are classified into four categories based on their state of preservation: non-collectible, commercial, collectible, and museum-grade.

Non-collectible Quality: These teeth are only partially preserved, exhibiting significant damage and fractures.

Commercial Quality: These teeth are in good condition but far from perfect. Minor chips, cracks, or the absence of serrations diminish the value of what might otherwise be a good specimen.

Collectible Quality: These teeth boast very good preservation. The surface and cutting-edge serrations are intact. Any damage is minimal and almost imperceptible without magnification.

Museum Quality: This is the most coveted find for any collector. Such specimens are so impeccably preserved that they seem as if they were dislodged from the jaws of the ancient beast just yesterday. These teeth have retained their enamel and serrated edges for millions of years due to exceptional preservation conditions.

Meteorites. These cosmic wanderers have fascinated people for ages. Looking up at the night sky, each of us has at least once seen what looks like a star falling from its place, leaving a bright trail as it rushes downward. Imagine the awe of people centuries and millennia ago when a meteorite fell before their eyes. The thunderous roar, the hissing and cracking, a fiery ball streaking across the sky and crashing with an incredible boom! The memory of such an event became legends and myths, and people kept fragments of the celestial stone as sacred relics. It is no surprise that even scientists were long reluctant to recognize meteorites as real, considering tales of them to be mere fiction. It wasn’t until 1794, with the study of the Pallas Iron—a large meteorite found in Siberia—that the extraterrestrial origin of these objects was confirmed.

Over two hundred years have passed since then, and today meteorites are under the close scrutiny of scientists from various fields. Meteorites have become part of global popular culture, appearing in films and science fiction novels. It’s high time we finally learn what these visitors from space are.

The beginning of the Story

The bright midday sun illuminates the silvery-blue foaming crests of the Volga Sea waves. Far on the horizon, between the water’s surface and the sky, lies a strip of tropical vegetation—the shore of one of the islands. Winged shadows with sharp cries swoop over the waves, snatching small fish from the water. Beneath the surface, a microscopic world teems with life. Single-celled algae absorb the sun’s rays, becoming food for the larvae of crustaceans, echinoderms, marine worms, tiny jellyfish, and other creatures—eyed and translucent. Among these planktonic inhabitants are tiny shell balls about 1 mm in size with thin, almost invisible tentacles.

These are young ammonites, and they are the focus of today’s story.

Ammonites are distant relatives of nautiluses, the only modern cephalopods that have retained an external shell. Their history begins in the early Paleozoic. The first cephalopods had compact, conical shells. Over time, the increase in size of these animals created a significant problem. The straight, rigid shell greatly reduced mobility, making them easy prey.

A slight curvature of the shell gave a maneuverability advantage, and over time it increased until a spiral was formed. Each coil of this spiral lay adjacent to the next, forming a solid structure. This shell design made it compact and controllable. It allowed for an active lifestyle—escaping predators and hunting agile prey. Thus, 410 million years ago, in the early Devonian period, a new subclass of cephalopods appeared—ammonites.