9-year-old girl finds Megalodon tooth over the holidays.

[elleng]

SOLOMONS, Md. — A 9-year-old girl from southern Maryland is making national headlines for what she found off the beaches of Calvert county.

Molly went looking for fossils on Christmas morning and came across a large tooth.

She took it to the Calvert Marine Museum where they confirmed it was a Megalodon tooth.

According to the natural history museum, Megalodons are an extinct species of shark said to be one of the biggest predators to have ever lived.

They went extinct about three and a half million years ago.

https://www.wmar2news.com/news/local-news/9-year-old-girl-finds-megalodon-tooth-over-the-holidays?

[AZSkiffyGeek]

1. When I was a kid growing up in DC I remember hunting fossilized shark teeth

I don’t know where the beach was but I had a big bag full of em. Most were the size of a quarter or so, but I had one big fossil my parents said was a whale bone - looking at the pix of that kid’s find, I think it was a megalodon tooth as well.

[Walleye]

5. We did too! I think it was in the clay cliffs on the western shore of the Chesapeake in Virginia

I bet my brother still has a box of them, some of them were good sized

[AZSkiffyGeek]

6. I think mine eventually ended up in my mom's classroom

Something I’d kinda forgotten about until I saw this post!

[Lovie777]

2. WOW...........

[PJMcK]

3. Thanks, elleng!

We went to that amazing museum when we met up with you on Solomons Island!

What an exciting story for the young paleontologist-to-be!

Thanks for posting.

[paleotn]

4. Wonderful! Love it when youngsters find neat things!

[magicarpet]

7. So,... did the Megalodon brush its teeth regularly,...

... or was there visible tooth decay ? Did they have Crest 2 million years ago ?



What a thrill for the young finder.

[Shermann]

8. Neither mega-rare nor mega-valuable, but very cool and worth keeping! nt

[elleng]

9. VERY cool, so glad that stuff's here (near me) tho I've never hunted.

HOPING my daughter and son in law will take the kids to explore.

WISH I'd known about paleontology when growing up (tho I was in NYC!)

[IbogaProject]

10. Megalodon Teeth are large

Megalodon are much larger than Shark Teeth. https://ocean.si.edu/ocean-life/sharks-rays/megalodon-teeth

A friend of mine was a dealer in them for awhile, I think he still collects them. https://web.archive.org/web/20030409074632/http://www.naturepreserved.com/jeff2/jeff2.htm

[sl8]

11. Pic:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64231245

.

ALICIA SAMPSON
Molly poses with her megalodon tooth

[CrabbyAppleton]

13. Outstanding

That is an outstanding specimen of Megalodon from Calvert Cliffs. The photo doesn't show it but those teeth are serrated like steak knives.

The best specimens were found in the phosphate pits of Aurora NC. I have a cast of one in the NMNH that's 7 1/2" from base to tip. She's a lucky hunter!

Crabby

[in2herbs]

12. While walking around my property the other day I happened across a rock that took my

interest. I picked it up for closer inspection. My inspection revealed a small paw (no claws) that continued up to what appears to be the entire leg portion up to the tip of the hip on its left side. On the underside of the paw there appears to be its foot pads. It was positioned like it was crouched when it died. It is petrified in shiny white rock. The rock is broken, splitting the right and left side of the body in two pieces. Somewhere the right side of the body is waiting to be found. The rest of the rock is messy but could contain the body.

I actually found 9 very interesting rocks on that day, but this one was the most interesting.

[CrabbyAppleton]

14. Picture?

Can you post a picture of this rock? It may be a significant specimen as vertebrate fossils aren't as common as some may think they are.

Crabby

[in2herbs]

15. I will try but haven't been successful on other attempts. If/when successful I will notify

you. My friend belongs to a geologist group and has suggested that I go with her to one of the meetings and bring the rock. I will post what they say about it but I'm not sure how often their meetings are and I won't be seeing her until later this month. The definition of the paw and hip are unmistakable to the naked eye buy how it appears in a photo I don't know. Imagine the claw on a claw foot tub only shrunk to about 1/2 inch. The length from the tip of the paw in a straight line to the hip's edge is 1-3/4 ins. At that point the body wraps around enough to evidence a bumm. After that, the rock has been split.

BTW: I live in the Sonoran desert in AZ about 40 miles north of central Scottsdale.

[CrabbyAppleton]

16. Your info suggests you should take care of the specimen you have.

Do you have the other part of the rock? If so, take care of it too.

Take your friends advice and get help from experts familiar with your locality. Try to document everything you can remember about where you found it.

A vertebrate fossil that small from your area could be significant.

Cheers,

Crabby