Molly Sampson was 9 years old and had a very specific item on her Christmas wish list: insulated boots for hunting shark teeth in cold waters.
She got them on December 25, 2022. That same morning, she went out with her sister Natalie and her dad to the beach at Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, and less than half an hour later, with water up to her knees, she spotted something dark beneath the submerged sand. She dove down to reach it and got both arms completely wet. What she pulled out was a megalodon tooth about 13 centimeters long that almost covered her hand.
The family took it to the Calvert Marine Museum, where experts confirmed that it belonged to a megalodon that lived about 15 million years ago. Amateur hunters find about 100 megalodon teeth a year in that area, but almost all of them are much smaller: the largest ever found measure just over 7 inches.
Paleontology curator Stephen Godfrey called it a once-in-a-lifetime find. Molly, who already dreams of becoming a paleontologist, had been exploring those beaches for years, inspired by her dad’s love of fossils.
With the right tools and lots of curiosity, this girl found what many people search a lifetime for.
