Carcharocles

Carcharocles is a dubious genus of extinct sharks, belonging to the order Lamniformes and is part of the shark family Otodontidae.[1] They lived from the Late Eocene to the Late Pliocene. The genus is said to have descended from another otodontid shark genus called Otodus.[2] The genus usually includes the species informally known as megalodon (i.e., Carcharocles megalodon); however, some taxonomic authorities place that species in various other genera.[3] Some authors consider the genus Carcharocles a subgenus of Otodus,[4] including a study of Megalolamna's taxonomic relationships that demonstrates the possibility that Otodus needs to include the species sometimes assigned to Carcharocles (i.e., the megatoothed lineage, including megalodon) in order to be monophyletic.[3]

Carcharocles
Temporal range: Late Eocene-Late Pliocene
56–3.6 Ma
Model of the jaws of C. megalodon at the American Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Otodontidae
Genus: Carcharocles
Hannibal & Jordan in Jordan, 1923
Type species
Carcharocles auriculatus?
Blainville, 1818
Species

Species

References

  1. Joseph S. Nelson (2006). "Order Lamniformes". Fishes of the World (4th ed.). John Wiley and Sons. pp. 57–60. ISBN 978-0-471-25031-9.
  2. Prof., Geller (30 September 2018). "Megalodon". Mythology.net.
  3. Shimada, K.; Chandler, R. E.; Lam, O. L. T.; Tanaka, T.; Ward, D. J. (3 October 2016). "A new elusive otodontid shark (Lamniformes: Otodontidae) from the lower Miocene, and comments on the taxonomy of otodontid genera, including the 'megatoothed' clade". Historical Biology. 29 (5): 704–714. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1236795. ISSN 0891-2963. S2CID 89080495.
  4. Otodus (Carcharocles) at Fossilworks.org
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