Children have always been fascinated by the idea of stumbling upon a hidden treasure, whether it’s on a beach or in an ancient cave. It’s a mix of adventure films and our natural curiosity that fuels these dreams at a young age.
I remember the excitement I felt when my grandfather gave me a metal detector for my 11th birthday. Oh, the treasures I was going to uncover! I couldn’t wait to head to the beach and start scanning the sand.
While my treasure hunting aspirations didn’t lead me to any museum-worthy artifacts, extraordinary finds are made on shores around the world every year. Molly Sampson, a young girl from Maryland, experienced this firsthand when she used her Christmas present to uncover a remarkable piece of history – the tooth of a terrifying sea creature that lived millions of years ago.
Molly and her sister, Natalie, had asked for insulated waders and fossil sifters for Christmas in 2022. They had their sights set on shark tooth hunting in the waters of Chesapeake Bay. Accompanied by their dad, Bruce Sampson, they ventured out during low tide to see what they could find.
It only took less than half an hour for Molly to come across something extraordinary while standing knee-deep in the water. She couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw it.
“I went closer, and in my head, I was like, ‘Oh, my, that is the biggest tooth I’ve ever seen!’” explained Molly, who was nine years old at the time. “I reached in and grabbed it, and dad said I was shrieking.”
The size and significance of the tooth weren’t lost on Molly’s dad, Bruce. He had been fossil hunting since he was young but had never found anything as impressive as what his daughter discovered.
A week later, Molly’s family took the tooth to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Maryland to confirm its identity. The paleontology curator at the museum, Stephen Godfrey, called it a “spectacular specimen” and described it as a “once-in-a-lifetime kind of find.” The tooth likely came from the upper left jaw of a megalodon, a prehistoric shark that lived around 15 million years ago and measured up to 50 feet in length.
Just imagine stumbling upon a tooth that belonged to an enormous sea creature from millions of years ago. Incredible, isn’t it?
