Scuba Diver Finds 'Ocean Graveyard' in North Carolina — Then He Took a Closer Look at The Bottom

About 600 million years ago, the coastal plain of North Carolina was completely covered with seas, as per the Carolina County website. Ribbony sponges rose from the seafloor, and carpets of algae lent greenish hues to the water color. Over time, the sea levels fell, leaving behind trails of primitive sediment. Today, the place hosts an attic of sinister-looking fossils from the prehistoric era. Fossil hobbyist Rufus Johnson said that almost every river and creek here teems with an abundance of fossils. In 2024, 25-year-old William McGhee (@ncdiggins) went scuba diving in North Carolina and discovered an “ocean graveyard” full of ancient treasures. He recorded his findings in a TikTok video, which has garnered 3.3 million views and counting.

“I found an ocean graveyard,” McGhee wrote in the video’s overlay text. "Believe it or not, if you go back almost 6 million years ago, this would have been the bottom of the ocean, and in that ocean were sharks, whales and other marine mammals," the overlay read as McGhee pointed to a river in the background footage. The camera panned to reveal thickets of tall green grasses fringing the river.

McGhee flashed his finger towards a spot in the river and explained, “When they died, all their remains landed right here in the bottom.” At the same spot, he dived into the river to see if he could find anything of the olden times. When he descended to the bottom of the river, he discovered a shark tooth lying on top of a gravel bed. He picked up the craggy brown triangle-shaped tooth and flashed it on the camera. It appeared rusted amidst the dazzling tumescence of water currents. As he swam around, McGhee discovered another similar shark tooth lying nearby. “Both of these sharks would have easily been 20 feet long,” he reflected.

Moving on, while he was exploring an exposed layer at the river bottom, he found another fascinating artefact – dozens of scallop shells peeking from under thick layers of sediment. He dusted off the sediment and showed one of the scallops. “This species of scallop has been extinct for almost 2 million years," he said. A short distance from these shells was another shark tooth, this one smaller than the previous ones. He described that the little tooth belonged to a “tiger shark,” as it was very similar to the species that are still found today.

What’s more, he found an old bottle of Pepsi Cola, which he estimated to be from the 1960s. Thanks to humans! The brown cola bottle was covered in chalky sediment and underwater soil. In the comments section, people pointed out that the fossils probably washed away at the seafloor after the “great flood,” as @bungo said. While many people were in disbelief at the prehistoric finds, @suqmadeek441 took the video on a lighter note. “What if sharks had been drinking Pepsi back then. We will never know but it's possible though,” they wrote in a comment.

Meanwhile, McGhee told Newsweek that it usually takes hours of research, scouting, trial and error, and a great deal of geography knowledge in determining where to look, but when you find it, the hard work "pays off big time." After discovering these fossils, he carefully stashed them inside a display case with proper labels that would stir up his adventurous spirit each time he’d look at the case.

You can follow William McGhee (@NCDiggins) on TikTok for videos related to fossils, antiquarian books, and artifacts