Molly Sampson found more than what she had been looking for all her life on Christmas morning. The 9-year-old girl found a megalodon tooth while out searching for shark teeth.
Girl From Maryland Found a 5-Inch Megalodon Tooth
Molly searched for shark teeth with her family in Calvert Beach, Marland. When she waded into the knee-deep cold waters of the Chesapeake Bay, she pulled a 5-inch long megalodon tooth and put it into a beach bag.
Her mom, Alicia Sampson, told USA Today that her daughter was over the moon after the rare find because she had always dreamed about it. Molly has reportedly been shark tooth hunting since she was 1. Her mom said she would crawl along the beach.
Molly is a homeschooled student from Prince Frederick. She has already collected 400 shark teeth, but the megalodon tooth was her biggest find yet.
As for Molly, she told the outlet that she was "so surprised." She initially thought she was dreaming and it wasn't real.
What Makes Megalodon Tooth a Rare Find?
Molly took the tooth she found to Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the Calvert Marine Museum. Molly remembered how excited the people in the museums were when they saw the tooth she had found.
The museum confirmed that the tooth belonged to the extinct shark megalodon (Otodus megalodon), which disappeared millions of years ago.
The tooth is special, and a rare find because megalodons are among the largest predators that ever lived before its extinction. According to scientists, they could grow up to 50 to 60 feet long.
Initially, the researchers thought its closest relative was the great white shark, but recent studies showed it's closer to the mako shark, Smithsonian reported.
ALSO READ: Terrifying Megalodon Had a Massive Penis About The Size of a Great White Shark, Expert Says
According to Godfrey, megalodon teeth are found fairly regularly along Calvert Cliffs, but the size Molly found is rare. Experts believe that megalodons feasted on whales, large fish, and probably sharks when they existed.
Considering the size of the megalodon tooth Molly found, Godfrey believed the source was 45 to 50 feet long. In addition, based on where the tooth was found and the age of sediments, the expert estimated that the tooth was about 15 million years old.
How Big Was Megalodons Vs. Great White Sharks
Megalodons, with the scientific name Carcharocles megalodon, which means "giant tooth," were believed to have ruled the oceans when they were still present due to their massive size. A study published their research in the journal Scientific Reports discovered that megalodon sharks could grow up to 18 meters (59 feet) and weigh about 48 tons. The size is much larger than the existing sharks and larger than today's great white sharks.
A computational reconstruction suggests that a 16-meter megalodon would have a head of about 4.65 meters. The extinct shark also had a 20-feet penis, according to shark expert Peter Klimley, Daily Star reported. He added that the megalodon's penis is about the size of a great white shark.
RELATED ARTICLE: Unbelievable! Study Reveals Actual Size of Megalodon Shark, One of the Largest Fish to Ever Exist
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