errifying GoPro footage captured the moment an alligator clamped down on the head of a shark tooth collector as he waded through a Florida river.
Jeff Heim, a collector specializing in ancient megalodon teeth, recalled his scrape with death in 2021 this week, saying the gator bit him 'twice before I knew it'.
Heim said the attack came as he was steadily sifting through the bed of Florida's Myakka River for megalodon teeth, and believed the initial glancing blow from the beast was a boat clipping his head.
'That to me is why it wasn't as scary, because there's no anticipation,' he said. 'It's like, you blink and things are different.'
As the gator made contact, Heim's GoPro filmed the moment the murky water before him became filled with bubbles while he thrashed in a moment of reaction.
He says he quickly calmed down thanks to his understanding of the predators as the alligator went in for another bite, saying: 'You never want to thrash or splash or act like prey, so I stayed calm.'
Heim avoided several more attempted strikes by the alligator in the muddy river, which he 'backed away from slowly and calmly', which he knew to do because he had 'dove around sharks' many times before.
He said the extent of his injuries were not immediately clear to him, until he felt a large flap of his skull had been torn from his head in the shape of the alligator's snout.
After clambering to the riverbank and calling for help at a nearby restaurant, he was rushed to hospital, where paramedics stapled his head 34 times - leading to grisly images of large scars zig-zagging across his scalp.
Heim was also bit in the hand during the attack, and was treated for severe puncture wounds.
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