A girl was pleasantly surprised after finding a huge megalodon tooth on Christmas day. The event occurred when 9-year-old Molly was playing on the shore of a beach in Maryland on Christmas Day.
The megadolon was a species of giant shark that is believed to have evolved around 20 million years ago, swimming the world’s oceans for 13 million years before going extinct.
According to what was indicated by the girl’s mother, Mrs. Sampson, on her Facebook account, the tooth Molly found was 5 inches long and as big as her hand. Molly and her sisters wanted to “go shark tooth hunting like a pro” and had ordered waders for Christmas, Sampson added on his social media page.
The family lives in an area with a high paleontological load. Before this event, Molly had found more than 400 much smaller teeth corresponding to different species, said the girl’s father, who declared himself fond of searching for fossils.
According to those indicated by BBC, the family took the tooth to the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland, United States. The museum’s paleontology department confirmed the shark’s identity and congratulated the “future paleontologist.”
Molly with workers from the Calvert Marine Museum in Maryland
As for the megalodon, the species is believed to be one of the largest and most powerful predators that ever lived, and scientists believe it could have been about 15.9 meters long, with a body mass of 61 tons and a speed of 1.4 meters per second. In addition, its jaw would allow it to ingest an 8-meter orca in just 5 bites.