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Otodus megalodon (/ ˈ m ɛ ɡ əl ə d ɒ n / MEG-əl-ə-don; meaning "big tooth"), commonly known as megalodon, is an extinct species of giant mackerel shark that lived approximately 23 to 3.6 million years ago (Mya), from the Early Miocene to the Early Pliocene epochs.
Otodontidae is an extinct family of sharks belonging to the order Lamniformes.Its members have been described as megatoothed sharks. [1] [2] They lived from the Early Cretaceous to the Pliocene, and included genera such as Otodus, including the giant megalodon. [3]
Otodus includes species that have not yet been formally described. One of these is Otodus debrayi, which is known to have lived in the Early Eocene and Middle Eocene epochs. This species has been found in Africa, North America, Central Asia, and Europe, dating from 47.8 to 38 milion years ago.
Members of the group include macropredators, generally of medium-large size, including the largest macropredatory shark ever, the extinct Otodus megalodon, as well as large planktivores. [ 2 ] Although some authors have argued that the Late Jurassic Palaeocarcharias should be considered the oldest known lamniform, this is disputed.
Size matters to these feuding scientists.
Otodus megalodon; S. Otodus sokolovi; This page was last edited on 14 October 2024, at 13:12 (UTC). Text is available under the Creative Commons ...
This page was last edited on 21 October 2023, at 18:53 (UTC).; Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply.
†Otodus. Diagram illustrating the largest (grey) and most conservative (red) size estimates of the Miocene-Pliocene shark Carcharocles megalodon (sometimes Carcharodon or Otodus megalodon) with a whale shark (violet), great white shark (green), and anachronistic human (black) to scale †Otodus megalodon †Oxyrhina †Pachecoa ...