Carcharodon - WikiHQ

Carcharodon (from Ancient Greek κάρχαρος (kárkharos), meaning "sharp, jagged", and ὀδούς (odoús), meaning "tooth", and thus, "sharp tooth/jagged tooth") is a genus of sharks within the family Lamnidae, colloquially called the "white sharks". The only extant member is the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Extinct species include C. hubbelli and C. hastalis. The first appearance of the genus in the fossil record may have been as early as the Late Oligocene Though Cretalamna was proposed assuming Carcharodon descended from Otodus (Carcharocles), a now disfavored theory.

The earliest records of Carcharodon purportedly occur in the Late Oligocene These records include specimens from southern Peru The modern great white shark has been posited to have evolved from C. hastalis through a transitional species, C. hubbelli.; though there is ample evidence that C. hastalis still fed on marine mammals.

left|thumb|220x220px|Extinct white shark tooth.

Study of white shark taxonomy is complicated by nomenclature and repeated taxonomic reassignments of various species. C. hastalis, I. subserratus, and C. planus traditionally were placed in Isurus,

I. subserratus, historically known as C. escheri under the genus Carcharomodus, has recently been reclassified back in to the genus Carcharodon as C. subserratus, and then again into Isurus.

The fossil "mega-toothed" sharks like Megalodon have also traditionally been placed in Carcharodon,

In 1876, fossils of a shark species referred to as the possible ancestor of the modern Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) were named Carcharodon caifassii by the paleontologist Maurice Leriche. C. caifassii is now placed as a probable junior synonym of C. carcharias due to the lack of sufficient diagnostic fossils.

Species

Carcharodon carcharias (Linnaeus, 1758) (the great white shark)
†Carcharodon carcharias-f (Lawley, 1876)
†Carcharodon hubbelli (Ehret et al., 2012)
†Carcharodon planus? (Agassiz, 1856)
†Carcharodon subserratus (escheri)? (Agassiz, 1843)