‘Cool’: nine-year-old finds rare, ancient shark tooth on Maryland beach

Molly Sampson: ‘I was amazed … my dad said I was, like, shrieking and screaming.’ Photograph: Courtesy Sampson Family

For Christmas, nine-year-old Molly Sampson and her sister Natalie, 17, asked their parents for one thing: insulated waders, to “go shark’s-tooth hunting like professionals”, said Molly’s mother, Alicia Sampson.

When the waders arrived from Santa, Molly told the Guardian, she declared that she would be looking “for a Meg”, or megalodon tooth, and ventured to Maryland’s Calvert Beach to hunt fossils on Christmas Day with Natalie and their father, Bruce Sampson.