Come face to face with sharks great and small. Touch rays and other marine species. See how you measure up to the jaw of an extinct Megalodon shark. And discover Mote's shark research dating back to 1955—when Mote was founded by an amazing scientist nicknamed the "Shark Lady."
Join us for Narrated Shark Training Sessions at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You’ll see sharks that are trained to swim to targets for their food. This calm feeding session helps us give each animal the appropriate nutrition.
Explore Mote’s shark research past and present. Mote has the only Center for Shark Research designated by the U.S. Congress!
Get a close-up look at real sharks of multiple species from large sanbar sharks to small bonnethead sharks.
Gently touch marine animals including rays in our ray touch pool and marine invertebrates in our Contact Cove touch pool.
Take your photo by our Megalodon shark jaw, a replica showing the size of this huge extinct species.
Sift for fossils at our Fossil Creek experience!
A replica of an extinct Megalodon shark jaw at Mote
Shark in the Shark Zone large shark habitat at Mote
Cownose rays swim in the ray touch pool at Mote.
Guitarfish in the ray touch pool at Mote
Shark in the Shark Zone large shark habitat at Mote
Fossil Creek: Find Shark Teeth!
At Fossil Creek, located near the stingray touch pool, guests can play marine paleontologist by purchasing a container of sand and sifting out real, fossilized shark teeth estimated to be millions or tens of millions of years old. Teeth may come from tiger, hammerhead, great white, mako and other shark species. With luck, you might even find a tooth from the extinct Megalodon, the largest shark known to science! Guests may also find stingray barbs smoothed with time, bony plates from pufferfish mouths and more.
All fossils are real and are yours to keep.
You can purchase a souvenir bag of fossils or a fossil identification book before your visit to Mote!
Sharks have inhabited our oceans for hundreds of millions of years, and a single shark can replace tens of thousands of teeth over its lifetime. Today, fossilized shark teeth help scientists understand these ancient fishes.
A guide to shark tooth identification at Mote's Fossil Creek
