She Opened Her Christmas Present. Then She Found Something 15 Million Years Old.

On Christmas morning 2022, 9-year-old Molly Sampson of Prince Frederick, Maryland opened a present she had been hoping for: a pair of waders. Most kids would have moved on to the next gift. Molly put them on and headed for the water.

Her family drove to the shoreline near Calvert Cliffs, a stretch of Chesapeake Bay known as one of the best fossil-hunting sites on Earth. The cliffs erode constantly, washing ancient remains into the shallows. Molly waded in up to her knees.

The Find

She spotted something large and dark in the shallow water. When she pulled it out, it was a tooth - five inches long, bigger than her entire hand. She knew immediately what it was.

It was a megalodon tooth, estimated to be approximately 15 million years old. The tooth likely came from a shark between 45 and 50 feet long - one of the largest predators that ever lived.

A curator at the Calvert Marine Museum called it a "once-in-a-lifetime find." Many fossil hunters search for years without finding anything close to this size or quality.

The Youngest Paleontologist

Molly has been finding fossils since she was a toddler, long before she could read. By age 9, her collection had grown to more than 400 teeth and fossils. Her family regularly hunts the Calvert Cliffs shoreline together.

When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, she has one answer: a paleontologist. Given her track record, the field might already be hers.