A nine-year-old named Molly Sampson is quite the shark tooth collector. Resources have said that she’s already gathered over 400 teeth along the coastline of Maryland. Now, she’s found the biggest one yet. The tooth of a megalodon, rumored to be about 60 feet in length.

Molly found the tooth in the shallow waters of a beach at Calvert Cliffs State Park in Maryland on December 25, 2022. The tooth was recorded to be 5 inches in length. About the size of young Molly’s hand.

For Christmas, Molly and her older sister Natalie, who also loves to search for fossils, each got a pair of chest- high waders. They are essentially waterproof overalls that will make it easier to look for fossils, says the girl’s mother Alicia Sampson.

After opening the present, the girls went out to the beach with their dad. Molly soon proclaimed that she was “looking for a meg.” Meg is what some people use as a nickname for megalodon. Within 30 minutes, Molly got her wish.

The family brought the tooth to Stephen Godfrey, a paleontologist who works at the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland. He confirmed that the enormous tooth was in fact from a megalodon. He said it was a “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery.

“Dr. Godfrey explained to Molly that the shark would’ve been the size of a Greyhound bus,” said Alicia Sampson. “Molly didn’t know what that was, so she looked it up and could not believe it.”

Molly isn’t the only kid to have found a megalodon tooth. But she is one of the ones who have found more than one. Molly has found about 6 of what are suspected to be megalodon teeth in the last few years, “but none as big as this one,” says her mother.

Molly’s parents adore her passion for fossil hunting and are proud of her latest discovery. “We hope that her find will inspire other kids to explore nature,” said Alicia Sampson.

		Mckenzie Brown