Fossil Otodus Shark Tooth, 1"
Fossil Otodus Shark Tooth, 1"
Species: Otodus obliquus
Age: Eocene (~54 Million years)
Origin: Khouribga, Morocco
Otodus is an extinct genus of mackerel shark that lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene epoch. These sharks had a body length of between 30 and 40 feet - nearly as long as a bus.
The species are known primarily from their teeth and fossilized vertebral centra, since the skeleton of the animal was composed primarily of cartilage, which results in relatively few fossilized remains being preserved.[1]
Sources:
[1] Shimada, K. (2022). "Phylogenetic affinity of the extinct shark family Otodontidae within Lamniformes remains uncertain - Comments on "List of skeletal material from megatooth sharks (Lamniformes, Otodontidae)" by Greenfield" (PDF). Paleoichthys. 6: 1–5.