The great sharks take shape
Otodus and its relatives grow toward the largest predatory sharks ever, following the new whale prey.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 11 million years
- Known to
- ± 2 million years
- Era
- Oligocene, Cenozoic
As whales diversify and grow, the sharks that hunt them follow. The otodontid lineage — Otodus angustidens and its successors — reaches lengths of nine metres or more in the Oligocene, on the way to the megalodon of the Miocene. Because shark skeletons are cartilage, almost all of this is known from teeth, which are abundant, durable and diagnostic. The relationship is direct: shark body size in this lineage tracks the availability of large marine mammal prey.