9-Year-Old Maryland Girl Finds Tooth Remains of Extinct Shark

A 9-year-old girl found a Megalodon tooth on Christmas morning.

The girl, Molly Sampson, found one of the most magical and coolest things she could add to her fossil collection.

In Calvert Beach, Maryland, the 9-year-old girl was out with her family looking for shark teeth.

She discovered it while walking along the shore, and it is thought that the tooth belonged to a Megalodon shark.

Molly has amassed a collection of more than 400 shark teeth. However, this was the student's most significant find to that point.

9-Year-Old girl finds a Megalodon tooth

According to USA Today, the shark hunting on Christmas morning started when Molly Sampson asked her parents for a pair of insulated wading boots as a Christmas present.

Molly told her parents that she wanted the insulated boots as they would help her go to the beach for fossil hunting.

And her parents, Bruce and Alicia Sampson, also fossil hunters, generously gifted her just that.

When she got her present on Christmas morning, the family decided to go fossil hunting despite the below-freezing temperatures.

Molly was giddy and excited to go to the Calvert Cliffs State Park to test out her new gift and was joined by her father Bruce and older sister, Natalie.

Alicia told NBC Washington she stayed in that morning to keep herself warm. She thought the temperature was too cold to go in the water, and she'd rather drink coffee at home.

However, after her family went off to their destination, Bruce sent her a photo of Molly holding a giant tooth.

The mother was also impressed by how quickly she found it; they were just on the hunt for not even 30 minutes, and yet, Molly was able to find the largest tooth they had ever collected.

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Fossil hunting with her family

The Sampsons were confident that they had discovered a tooth belonging to a megalodon since they had spent many years searching for fossils.

However, Alicia sent a picture to the curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, Dr. Stephen Godfrey, so that he could verify the information.

Godfrey informed the family that he would return to the museum on January 3.

On that particular day, the family arrived at the museum as soon as it opened and showed the tooth Molly had discovered on Christmas morning.

After examining the tooth, the curator provided the family with additional information regarding its age. In addition, Godfrey verified that the shark tooth belonged to a Megalodon.

The Museum also shared the discovery of Molly on its Facebook page to let others know of the new fossil. Numerous people in the comments section sent positive messages and congratulations to Molly on her achievement at such a young age.

The Ocean describes the species as a prehistoric shark that inhabited the ocean around 23 to 3.6 million years ago and could be found in almost every part of the ocean.

An Otodus megalodon is a prehistoric megalodon shark that has now become extinct. The name Megalodon originates from a Greek term that can be translated as "big tooth."

Scientists believe that it might have grown to be between 50 and 60 feet long, making it the largest shark that had ever lived until it went extinct.

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