Nine-year-old Molly Sampson has gone viral after finding a rare 5 million-year-old megalodon tooth during a Christmas Day visit to Calvert Beach in Maryland, USA.
Wading into knee-deep waters, despite the cold 10-degree temperatures, the amateur paleontologist found the tooth belonging to the now-extinct Otodus megalodon shark species.
The megalodon, which in ancient Greek means "big tooth," - died out over 3.5 million years ago. Th hark grew to be over 66 feet long, making it the biggest species of shark in the world.
The tooth that Molly found was as big as her hand.
"I went closer, and in my head, I was like, 'Oh, my, that is the biggest tooth I've ever seen! I reached in and grabbed it, and dad said I was shrieking." Molly Sampson
The Sampson family took the tooth that Molly found to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. The Curator of Paleontology at the museum, Stephen Godfrey, called the discovery a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of find.”
“It’s a spectacular specimen. It’s one of the larger ones that’s probably ever been found along Calvert Cliffs.People should not get the impression that teeth like this one are common along Calvert Cliffs. And she didn‘t have to dig into the cliffs to find the tooth, it was out in the water.” Curator of Paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, Stephen Godfrey
Molly is no stranger to finding teeth - having found over 400 previously, but this was the largest one she had found. It was indeed a Merry Christmas for Molly!
Your thoughts
What do you think of the discovery by Molly? Have you ever looked for fossils along Calvert Cliffs?
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