Puerto Morelos / Tulum, Quintana Roo — At 28 meters below the surface in Cenote Maravilla—a hard-to-reach cavern in the municipality of Puerto Morelos—cave diver Juan Cardona made a discovery that has reset the paleontological map of the Mexican Caribbean. In 2019, Cardona located two fossilized teeth from Otodus (Megaselachus) megalodon, the largest marine predator known to science. One tooth belongs to a juvenile, while the other—as large as an adult human hand—likely came from a fully grown animal.
The fossils, now on public display in Room 1 of the Regional Museum of the Eastern Coast in Tulum (operated by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH), mark the first scientifically documented record of megalodon in Quintana Roo. The find was first presented at the XVI National Paleontology Congress in Chihuahua in 2019.
Scientific Identification and Dating
After Cardona reported the first tooth, the Gran Acuífero Maya (GAM) project notified shark-fossil specialist Gerardo González Barba of the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur. Working from high-resolution images, González Barba confirmed both teeth as megalodon and dated them to the Miocene–Pliocene (roughly 23 to 2.5 million years ago), when a shallow, warm sea covered what is now the Yucatán Peninsula.
“It is likely that these teeth fell to the seafloor over 15 million years ago, when the peninsula had not yet emerged and calcareous sediments were accumulating layer by layer. This process allowed the teeth to become preserved in the rock,” González Barba explained.
He added crucial geological context:
“Approximately 100 million years ago, the area now known as the Yucatán Peninsula was entirely submerged. It was around 15 million years ago that it began to emerge, initiating the geological process of karst weathering, which formed today’s cave and cenote systems.”
Extraction Under Strict Protocols
The larger tooth was found embedded in a limestone conglomerate alongside other marine fossils. To prevent looting, GAM carried out a controlled, in-situ extraction in 2021, following scientific protocols. Both specimens were then conserved and transferred for public display in Tulum.
As part of GAM’s Digital Preservation Project, the team led by archaeologist Guillermo de Anda, with support from the Embassy of Switzerland in Mexico, the National Geographic Society, and technology partners including Dive Rite, Seahorse 360, and Creative DataBases, created high-resolution digital reproductions of the fossils. The initiative is part of a broader effort to safeguard and document the peninsula’s subaquatic cultural and natural heritage.
What the Teeth Suggest About Ancient Yucatán Seas
The presence of one juvenile and one adult tooth in the same cenote bolsters the hypothesis that parts of the ancient Yucatán shelf could have served as a megalodon nursery and feeding ground, when warm, shallow waters supported abundant marine life. The find adds weight to regional evidence that the Caribbean side of Mexico once hosted a rich Miocene–Pliocene ecosystem.
Megalodon—estimated to reach up to 18 meters in length—was a cosmopolitan apex predator that dominated tropical and temperate oceans during the Miocene and Pliocene, before going extinct around 2 million years ago. In Mexico, megalodon remains have previously been recorded in Baja California and Chiapas, as well as other Yucatán cave systems, but this is the first validated record in Quintana Roo, underscoring the region’s importance for both marine paleoecology and karst archaeology.
Why It Matters
Beyond the headline value of “megalodon in a cenote,” the Cenote Maravilla teeth link today’s groundwater-fed cave networks to an ancient seabed—a continuum that helps scientists reconstruct sea-level history, sedimentation, and biodiversity across millions of years. Their secure extraction, museum display, and digital replication also highlight a maturing model for responsible stewardship of fragile finds in the Maya Aquifer.
Where to see them: Both teeth are exhibited in Room 1, Regional Museum of the Eastern Coast (Museo de la Costa Oriental), Tulum, operated by INAH.
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