Giant-toothed White Sharks and Wide-toothed Mako (Lamnidae) from the Venezuela Neogene: Their Role in the Caribbean, Shallow-water Fish Assemblage

The role of Neogene giant-toothed lamnid sharks in the Caribbean neritic fish assemblage is discussed based on predator-prey relationships in three different tropical paleoenvironments from the Lower Miocene to Lower Pliocene. New records of extinct giant-toothed white sharks Carcharodon megalodon (Agassiz), Carcharodon subarticulatus (Agassiz), and wide-toothed mako Isurus xiphodon (Agassiz) from coastal shallow waters, coastal upwelling, swampy, coastal lagoon, and sandy littorals of the Venezuela Neogene, suggest these species were large transient piscivores that may have had enough behavioral flex- ibility to occupy different environments. Giant-tooth shark species, that probably fed mainly on fish, turtles, cetaceans and sirenids, did not exhibit large population sizes. The trophic role that large consumer sharks have carried out represents the higher trophic category, the type of selective pressure, and the control performed in the marine environment. The dynamics of these associations during Neogene is deeply dif- ferent.