Maryland girl discovers ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ megalodon tooth

(CNN) — A 9-year-old aspiring paleontologist discovered the discover of a lifetime on Christmas morning: an enormous 5-inch tooth from a prehistoric megalodon.

Molly Sampson, a fourth grader from Prince Frederick, Maryland, made the astonishing discover on Calvert Seashore.

Molly advised CNN that she has spent years combing Maryland’s seashores for shark tooth, impressed by her father’s love of fossils.

“They’re simply cool as a result of they’re actually previous,” she mentioned.

Molly’s mom Alicia Sampson added that her daughter has lengthy harbored a love of exploring the outside. “She loves treasure looking,” she defined.

Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs State Park is called a hotspot for fossil discovering, Alicia Sampson added.

For Christmas, Molly requested her mother and father for cold-water waders in order that she may hunt for shark tooth and different fossils within the Chesapeake Bay. Geared up together with her new gear, she set out at 9:30 a.m. to seek for the remnants of historical predators.

“I noticed one thing huge, and it appeared like a shark tooth,” she mentioned. “We have been about knee deep within the water.”

She defined that she tried to seize the tooth with a sifting software, however it was too huge. She was “amazed” when she realized simply how massive the tooth was. “I used to be so excited and stunned.”

The Sampsons took their thrilling discover to the Calvert Marine Museum, the place paleontology curator Stephen Godfrey confirmed their suspicions: It was certainly the tooth of a megalodon, the huge sharks that lived greater than 23 million years in the past.

Godfrey advised CNN that there are normally solely 5 – 6 megalodon tooth comparable in dimension to Molly’s discover found alongside Calvert Cliffs every year.

“There are individuals that may spend a lifetime and never discover a tooth the dimensions Molly discovered,” he mentioned.

“This is sort of a once-in-a-lifetime form of discover.”

Novice fossil hunters sometimes discover round 100 megalodon tooth on Calvert Cliffs per 12 months, he added. However most of them are a lot smaller than Molly’s large tooth. The most important megalodon tooth ever discovered have been simply over 7 inches.

The scale of the tooth signifies that this specific megalodon was between 45 and 50 ft lengthy.

Godfrey defined that hundreds of thousands of years in the past, the waters off Calvert Cliffs would have been house to whales and dolphins that might have served as bountiful prey for megalodons trying to eat. As a result of sharks substitute their tooth over the course of their lives and since the tooth are made up of hardy enamel, they’re “by far probably the most considerable vertebrate fossil.”

Megalodons maintain a selected fascination for people as a result of they served because the “apex predator on Earth” for hundreds of thousands of years, he mentioned.

Each Godfrey and Alicia Sampson mentioned they hope Molly’s discover helps encourage different youngsters, particularly ladies, to pursue their scientific pursuits.

“This may encourage individuals of all ages, youngsters included, to pursue their pure inclination in nature, artwork music, there’s so many potentialities which can be obtainable to us at the moment,” mentioned Godfrey.

Alicia Sampson mentioned youngsters across the globe have despatched letters to Molly sharing their pleasure at her discovery. She arrange an Instagram web page to share her daughters’ out of doors adventures.

“We actually wish to attain different children and get them enthusiastic about like being exterior,” she mentioned.

Molly mentioned she hopes to show the large tooth in a shadowbox in her room — and someday hopes to turn into a paleontologist.

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