Parotodus
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'''''Parotodus''''', commonly known as the '''false-toothed mako shark''' (or '''false mako shark'''), is an extinct genus of [[mackerel shark]] that lived approximately 53 to one million years ago during the [[Eocene]] and [[Pleistocene]] [[epoch (geology)|epochs]]. |
'''''Parotodus''''', commonly known as the '''false-toothed mako shark''' (or '''false mako shark'''), is an extinct genus of [[mackerel shark]] that lived approximately 53 to one million years ago during the [[Eocene]] and [[Pleistocene]] [[epoch (geology)|epochs]]. |
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Its teeth, which are found worldwide, are often prized by fossil collectors due to their rarity. The scarcity of fossils is because ''Parotodus'' likely primarily inhabited open oceans far away from the continents. While the placement of ''Parotodus'' with the Lamniformes has been debated, most researchers agree it was probably a member of a now extinct shark clade, either a otodontid or a cardabiodont. In any case, it would have been the last members of either group. While originally being suspected of dying out at the very end of the Pliocene, fossils found in the Waccamaw Formation show that it made it to the Pleistocene. The body length of ''Parotodus'' is estimated to be |
Its teeth, which are found worldwide, are often prized by fossil collectors due to their rarity. The scarcity of fossils is because ''Parotodus'' likely primarily inhabited open oceans far away from the continents. While the placement of ''Parotodus'' with the Lamniformes has been debated, most researchers agree it was probably a member of a now extinct shark clade, either a otodontid or a cardabiodont. In any case, it would have been the last members of either group. While originally being suspected of dying out at the very end of the Pliocene, fossils found in the Waccamaw Formation show that it made it to the Pleistocene. The body length of ''Parotodus'' is estimated to be maximum to about {{cvt|7.6|-|9.2|m|ft}} long. |
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==Description== |
==Description== |
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