The idea started as a casual question between two people at the Calvert Marine Museum: why not make megalodon the state shark?
As of Oct. 1, it is. Maryland’s official state shark is Otodus megalodon, the extinct giant known mostly from its fossil teeth, and the Calvert Marine Museum says Maryland is the first state in the nation to recognize an official state shark. The museum, which is Maryland’s State Paleontology Center and where the effort began, announced the designation from Solomons and thanked the General Assembly, Gov. Wes Moore, Sen. Jack Bailey and Del. Todd Morgan.
How it began
Paleontologist Stephen Godfrey, the museum’s curator of paleontology, came up with the idea in a conversation with John Nance, the collections manager, according to Capital News Service. Godfrey has said he noticed that North Carolina had named the megalodon tooth its state fossil, but no state had named a shark. A former museum board member, Marianne Harms, connected him with Bailey, a Republican who represents Calvert and St. Mary’s, in the summer of 2025.
Bailey sponsored Senate Bill 135 and Morgan, also a Republican from Calvert and St. Mary’s, sponsored House Bill 97. The House bill was heard March 17 and passed the House 135-0 on March 23, according to the legislature’s website, then went to a Senate committee. There it sat.
The last-day route
It did not die. On the final day of the session, April 13, the megalodon language was added to Senate Bill 35, a bill on state designations and commemorative days. SB 35 also names the Natural History Society of Maryland the state natural sciences museum and requires the governor to proclaim Oct. 1 each year as Purple Lights Night for domestic violence victims and survivors. The House passed the amended bill 133-0 on April 13, and Moore approved it May 12 as Chapter 505 of the 2026 laws, which set an Oct. 1 effective date.
That was not a given. Committee chair Sen. Brian Feldman told Maryland Matters in March that the committee would be “very thoughtful and judicious” about commemorative bills and expected only a handful to pass. Last year lawmakers made chromite the state mineral, a bill that took eight years. Maryland remains one of two states without an official state song.
Who pushed
Godfrey testified twice, once with his third-grade daughter, CNS reported. A fourth-grade teacher, Anna Shay, submitted student letters and artwork; Maryland Matters reported the letters came from fourth graders at Beltsville Academy. The Natural History Society of Maryland and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation provided written support. Opposition was thin: Andy Ellis, the Green Party’s candidate for governor, argued for “state historic shark” so the plain title could one day go to a living species, CNS reported. The state fiscal note said the designation “does not materially affect State finances.”
“I can’t believe this actually happened,” Godfrey told CNS.
Why Maryland
Megalodon teeth turn up across the state: in Anne Arundel, Calvert, Caroline, Charles, Dorchester, Prince George’s and St. Mary’s counties, according to the Chronicle’s earlier reporting. The Calvert Marine Museum holds more than 1,700 of them, including the only associated set of more than 50 teeth from a single individual found in the state. Researchers believe Maryland’s shallow seas were a whale and dolphin calving ground and a nursery for young megalodons, and a 15-million-year-old whale vertebra from Calvert Cliffs shows damage consistent with a megalodon attack, Popular Science reported. Megalodon is estimated to have gone extinct about 3.6 million years ago.
The shark joins other fossil symbols. The Maryland Manual notes the state named Astrodon johnstoni its state dinosaur in 1998, a species first described from teeth found near Muirkirk in 1858.
The “first” claim
The first-in-the-nation claim comes from the museum, and news outlets repeated it. The Chronicle found no other state with an official shark. Washington state had a 2026 bill, House Bill 2447, to name the bluntnose sixgill shark, which cleared a House committee in February; the legislature’s site shows it has not become law.
