A 9-year-old fossil hunter from Maryland stumbled across a once-in-a-lifetime find while scouting for treasures on the Calvert County coastline on the Chesapeake Bay: a huge tooth from a 15 million-year-old megalodon.
On Dec. 25, Molly Sampson, a fourth grader from Southern Maryland was out fossil hunting with her big sister, Natalie. Molly was wrapped in layers of clothes—as it was a wind chill temperature of 10 degrees Fahrenheit outside—and her new waders that she was gifted for Christmas.
“I was walking away from the beach in knee-deep water, looking in an area I couldn’t look at before until I had waders,” she told The Epoch Times. “I looked down and saw [the tooth] sitting on the bottom and thought I was dreaming.”
Molly found it a bit unbelievable as it was just sitting on the sand under the water.
“I tried to scoop it up with my sand sifter, but it was too big, so I just dove my hands into the freezing water to get it because I was so excited,” she said.
Molly was pretty sure she was holding a megalodon tooth since she has found a few before, but none like this one. The megalodon is an extinct species of mackerel shark that lived approximately around 23 to 3.6 million years ago. Molly’s father, 43-year-old structural steel estimator, Bruce Sampson, told his daughter the incredible 5-inch tooth was a “once-in-a-lifetime” find.
Bruce said: “I was walking behind the kids, watching them look for fossils in their new waders ... I heard [Molly] screaming and yelling up in front of me, and I knew she had found something good, but could not believe it when she showed me. I was so happy for her, words cannot express.”
Bruce said that he knows the thrill of finding something like this even though his find is a little smaller.
“I can tell you what I wasn’t thinking: that we would be sharing this story with millions of people!” he said.
Molly’s mom, 42-year-old private violin teacher Alicia Sampson, was sitting by the fire at home “drinking coffee, staying warm,” when her husband sent photos of their daughter’s discovery. “I thought he was playing a trick on me,” Alicia said.
The family quickly got in touch with a trusted contact, Dr. Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum, and sent him a picture of the tooth via email. They even told him they wanted to show him the find in person.
“As soon as he was back in the museum, we came in and he confirmed it was a Megalodon tooth,” Alicia said. “Dr. Godfrey estimates it to be roughly 15 million years old.”
The tooth came from the left upper jaw of an otodus megalodon, Godfrey said, perhaps the largest marine macropredator the world has ever known. The shark he said was likely between 45 and 50 feet long.
Molly is keeping her latest find in a case with the rest of her big teeth for now. She has collected over 400 teeth in total. Bruce plans to build a shadowbox so that his daughter can display it on her bedroom wall.
For Molly’s parents, her fossil find was the icing on the cake of an already enriching activity.
“This is something I grew up doing, and to see them sharing the same enthusiasm is so rewarding,” Bruce told The Epoch Times.
“We tell the kids all the time when they find a new tooth, ‘You’re the only person on the planet to ever hold that tooth in your hand, and it’s been sitting there for millions of years waiting for you to pick it up!’” Alicia said.
The parents marvel that Molly’s story is reaching millions.
“In a time when we all get so wrapped up in electronic devices, I think it’s important to experience the world first-hand,” Alicia said. “You don’t have to make a once-in-a-lifetime discovery to be in awe of the treasures hidden on the beach, or wherever you roam.”
Molly, who is homeschooled alongside her sister, has never been far from the Chesapeake Bay and said that the site is “one of the best places in the world to look for fossil sharks’ teeth.”
Molly loves science class and playing the violin. She plans to become a violin teacher, like her mom, or a paleontologist when she grows up.
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