Carcharocles angustidens

Carcharocles angustidens is a species of prehistoric megatoothed sharks in the genus Carcharocles, which lived during the Oligocene and Miocene epochs about 33 to 22 million years ago. This shark is related to another extinct megatoothed shark, Carcharocles megalodon. The Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, first identified this shark as a species of genus Carcharodon in 1835. In 1964, shark expert, L. S. Glikman recognized the transition of Otodus obliquus to C. auriculatus and moved C. angustidens to genus Otodus. (See 'external links' below) However, in 1987, shark expert H. Cappetta recognized the C. auriculatus - C. megalodon lineage and placed all related megatooth sharks along with this species in the genus Carcharocles. The complete Otodus obliquus to C. megalodon transition then became clear and has since gained the acceptance of many other experts with the passage of time. Within the Carcharocles lineage, C. angustidens is the species succeeding C. sokolovi and is followed by C. chubutensis. In 2001, a discovery of the best preserved Carcharocles angustidens specimen to date by two scientists, Michael D. Gottfried and Robert Ewan Fordyce, has been presented by the team as evidence for close morphological ties with the extant great white shark, and the team argued that Carcharocles angustidens, along with all other related megatooth sharks, including Carcharocles megalodon, should be assigned to Carcharodon as was done before by Louis Agassiz., although this is not internationally accepted by the scientific community. Like other known megatooth sharks, the fossils of C. angustidens indicate that it was considerably larger than the extant great white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. The well preserved specimen from New Zealand is estimated at 9.3 m (31 ft) in length. This specimen had teeth measuring up to 9.87 cm (3.89 in) in diagonal length, and vertebral centra around 1.10 cm (0.43 in) in diameter. However, reports of larger C. angustidens fossils have been made. The dental formula for C. angustidens is 2.1.5.43.0.6.3 C. angustidens was an apex predator and likely preyed upon penguins, fish, dolphins, and baleen whales.