Carcharodon

Carcharodon is a genus of lamniform sharks in the family Lamnidae that includes a single extant species, the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias).. Although this animal can reach more than 5 meters in length, it is quite small when compared to the megalodon (Carcharocles megalodon), a gigantic whale-eater that could have reached 20 meters in length or more., and became extinct in relatively recent times, at the end of the Pliocene or perhaps at the beginning of the Pleistocene.

Like most of the fossil record of sharks, those of Carcharodon are reduced to thousands of jaws and teeth scattered around the world, since the cartilaginous skeleton of chondrichthyan fish is normally destroyed before that can fossilize The teeth, on the other hand, are exceptionally hard and are perfectly preserved. Thanks to them, it has been possible to date the appearance of this genus in the Lower Eocene in the form of primitive species such as Carcharodon sokolowi and that could have evolved from Cretaceous forms such as Cretolamna.

Some authors have considered the genus Carcharodon to be paraphyletic on some occasions, especially regarding the relationships between C. carcharias and C. megalodon. According to this current, the genus Carcharodon should be reserved for the only living species, while the fossils should be included in a different genus, Carcharocles. In some publications these species are listed under the genus Procarcharodon, but this is not correct since the application of this name infringes the principle of antiquity of the laws of zoological nomenclature, since it was coined 37 years later. from Carcharocles (if paraphilia is accepted) and almost 120 after Carcharodon.