Otodus

Otodus
Temporal range: PaleoceneEarly Pliocene, 65–3.6 Ma
Reconstructed jaws of a Paleogene Otodus (O. obliquus)
Reconstructed jaws of a Neogene Otodus (O. megalodon)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Chondrichthyes
Subclass: Elasmobranchii
Order: Lamniformes
Family: Otodontidae
Genus: Otodus
Agassiz, 1843
Type species
Otodus obliquus
Agassiz, 1838
Species[1][2]
Species pending reassessment
    • Otodus latidens
    • Otodus mediavus
    • Otodus hastalis
    • Otodus minor
    • Otodus naidini
    • Otodus poseidoni
    • Otodus rondelettiformis
Synonyms[3]
  • Carcharocles? Hannibal & Jordan in Jordan, 1923
Life restoration of O. obliquus

Otodus is an extinct, cosmopolitan genus of mackerel shark which lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene epoch. The name Otodus comes from Ancient Greek ὠτ- (ōt-, meaning "ear") and ὀδούς (odoús, meaning "tooth") – thus, "ear-shaped tooth".

  1. ^ Ehret, D. J.; Ebersole, J. (2014). "Occurrence of the megatoothed sharks (Lamniformes: Otodontidae) in Alabama, USA". PeerJ. 2: e625. doi:10.7717/peerj.625. PMC 4201945. PMID 25332848.
  2. ^ Fabien L. Condamine; Jules Romieu; Guillaume Guinot (2019). "Climate cooling and clade competition likely drove the decline of lamniform sharks". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 16 (41): 20584–20590. Bibcode:2019PNAS..11620584C. doi:10.1073/pnas.1902693116. PMC 6789557. PMID 31548392.
  3. ^ 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.