A 9-year-old girl from Maryland made a remarkable discovery while visiting Maryland’s Calvert Cliffs State Park. The young fossil hunter stumbled upon a rare megalodon tooth, believed to be over 15 million years old.
According to the girl’s father, an avid fossil collector, the family had been searching for shark teeth along the beach when his daughter found the large tooth in the water
Megalodon, meaning “big tooth,” was a giant predatory shark that lived during the early Miocene to the Pliocene epochs and is considered one of the largest and most powerful predators in vertebrate history.
Related: Where To Find Your Own Megalodon Tooth Fossils
Experts believe that the megalodon that was the original owner of the tooth that was found could have been as long as 50 feet.
The family took the enormous tooth to Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, who confirmed that the tooth belonged to a megalodon. Godfrey described the find as a “once-in-a-lifetime” discovery.
Fossils of megalodon teeth are highly sought after by collectors and can fetch a high price on the market.
This incredible discovery is a reminder of the rich history that can be found right in our own backyard and serves as inspiration for the rockhounding and fossil-collecting community keep exploring and uncovering the hidden treasures!
Related: How to Make a Shark Tooth Sifter (That Floats!)
Girl Finds a Rare Megalodon Tooth
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