Thursdays are for sharks

Did you know that sharks have the most powerful jaws on the planet? Did you know each type of shark has a different shaped tooth? Do you know how many teeth a shark grows during its lifetime? You can learn all this and more by attending the Museum of Coastal Carolina’s popular Megabites! program.
Every Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. Museum of Coastal Carolina visitors gather around educator Allison Smith to learn about sharks...their size, their feeding habits, their teeth and much more.
Megabites! begins in the museum’s Changing Tides Gallery, which contains 26 shark jaws—all of them from locally caught sharks. Next, Smith takes visitors to the Ocean Reef Gallery, where she points out several life-size models of sharks and discusses each one. Visitors are then invited to go outside to the fossil pit and dig for shark teeth (everyone is guaranteed to find at least one genuine shark tooth). Visitors can take their shark teeth to the Hayden O’Neil Learning Center, where Smith will help them identify what species of shark the teeth came from.
One recent Megabites! attendee, Josh Ward, was so fascinated by what he learned he created a shark tooth exhibit using the teeth he found in the fossil pit and some that he obtained from other sources. He recently brought his exhibit back to the museum to show to Smith.
Megabites! is presented every Thursday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at the Museum of Coastal Carolina, 21 East Second St. on Ocean Isle Beach. Admission is free for museum members. Non-member all-day admission is $8 for adults, $6 for seniors and students, $4 for ages 3-4, and free for ages 2 and younger. All-day admission means that you can attend the 3:30 p.m. Megabites! program and then come back later for the 7 p.m. Snakes Alive! Program. Just save your receipt and present it at the door. For more information, call 579-1016 or visit www.MuseumPlanetarium.org.