Diver Looking for Megalodon Teeth Is Attacked by Gator

Jeffrey Heim was diving along the Myakka River Sunday, searching for prehistoric shark teeth, when he felt something he compares to the propeller from a boat hitting him at 50mph. What it actually was: an alligator that attacked him, biting his head and hand, ABC Action News reports. The 25-year-old Tampa, Florida, man, who collects the megalodon teeth and sells them, says if he'd received the injuries on a different part of his body he could have died. He required 34 staples and suffered a skull fracture.

Alligators are more aggressive during mating season in May and June, and the experienced diver says he should have realized a gator could have been trying to protect her eggs at the time. "I was inside its mouth," he tells NBC News, noting that if the gator, which he estimates was 9 feet long, hadn't decided to let go, things could have been much worse. He is expected to make a full recovery, and he says he hopes wildlife officials do not kill the gator if it is found. (More Florida stories.)