Molly Sampson, 9, found a huge shark tooth in Calvert Beach, Maryland. It belonged to a representative of the extinct species of sharks Otodus megalodon.
According to the girl's mother Alicia Sampson, both her daughters wanted to go hunting for shark teeth. To do this, they took insulated rubber boots, put them on and went to look for finds right after Christmas breakfast.
Molly saw a tooth in the water. She found it at a knee-deep depth
"Look at the size of the tooth Molly has just found! It was in the water, so thanks to her rubber boots she got the best Christmas present!!!" the woman wrote on Facebook.
The tooth is 4 inches long
Alicia Sampson's husband has been looking for fossils in the area since childhood. The hobby passed to his daughters. Before that, the girl had found more than 400 much smaller teeth, but the tooth of this size was found for the first time.
The curator of the Calvert Maritime Museum called it a once-in-a-lifetime find. Megalodon means "big tooth" in Ancient Greek. This species of shark reached 66 ft and was one of the largest living in the world ocean. They became extinct about 3.5 million years ago.
Source: bbc.com
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