31 May 2023 , 10:54
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An incredible necklace made from the tooth of a pre-historic shark has been discovered in the wreckage of the Titanic.
The necklace has not been worn or seen since the luxury passenger liner sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg.
But now, thanks to the largest underwater scanning project in history, a deep-water investigation specialist used two submarines to unearth the treasure.
Thousands of images were taken by the divers from Magellan to analyse the wreck and uncover what really happened on that fateful night.
The images picked up a necklace made from the tooth of a Megalodon, a pre-historic shark, with gold jewellery built into it.
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The RMS Titanic illustrated as starting her voyage (Universal Images Group via Getty Images)An agreement between the UK and the US prevents anyone from removing artefacts from the wreck and surrounding bed.
The agreement ensures the site is "treated with the sensitivity and respect owed to the final resting place of more than 1,500 lives".
So despite discovering the necklace in the images, Magellan left it at the site untouched.
In a bid to seek out the jewellery's owner, artificial intelligence is being used to contact the family members of the 2,200 passengers onboard the Titanic when it sank.
Footage of passengers boarding the ship will be analysed with the technology, including facial recognition and the clothes that they were wearing.
Fans of the 1997 film, Titanic, starring Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet may be familiar with the necklace.
RMS Titanic, The Grand Staircase (Pictures from History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)Whilst the artefact found is not the same famous necklace, the discovery of such an immense necklace is poignant.
Richard Parkinson, CEO of Magellan, describes the find as "astonishing, beautiful and breathtaking."
Mr Parkinson said: "What is not widely understood is that the Titanic is in two parts and there's a three-square-mile debris field between the bow and the stern.
"The team mapped the field in such detail that we could pick out those details."
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Local Titanic researcher, Mandy Le Boutillier, says the quality of the images created has never been seen before.
She said: "It is chilling when you see objects like a pair of shoes because there was once a body there.
"It makes you think, everybody talks about how the Titanic was a wonderful ship of dreams, but ultimately it's a grave."
Megalodons were colossal sharks that lived an estimated 23 million to 2.6 million years ago.
From nose to tail, they are said to have measured around 16 metres in length.