Giant Great White Shark, Carcharocles chubutensis

Giant Great White Shark, Carcharocles chubutensis, Fossilized Teeth. Collections made in the mountains of the greater Los Cabos area, Baja California Sur, August 2009. Size of both: 9.8 cm (3.85 inches) long x 7.0 cm (2.75 inches) wide with a 10.5 cm (4.15 inches) slant height. The collection site is consistent with the formation of the Baja which also occurred during the Miocene epoch, 5,000,000 to 23,000,000 years ago.

Megatooth Shark, Carcharocles megalodon. Comparison with a modern day White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, and a Human, Homo sapiens. The Megatooth Shark: 2,000,000 to 23,000,000 years ago. Weight: 228,000 kg (500,000 lbs).

The Giant Great White Shark, Carcharocles chubutensis, if alive today, would be placed in the Mackerel Shark or Lamnidae Family, that are known collectively in Mexico as jaquetones. Globally, there are five species placed in three genera in the Lamnidae family. Three of these species are found in Mexican waters, two in both the Atlantic and Pacific and one in the Pacific Ocean. There are no surviving species in the genus Carcharocles, however the Great White, Carcharodon carcharias,  is considered a descendant.

The Giant Great White Shark was the dominant shark during the Miocene epoch, 5,000,000 to 26,000,000 years ago. They were huge fish and almost four times larger than today’s Great White Sharks. They were very successful predators known to feed on whales and other abundant marine animals as they were equipped with a set of gigantic sharply serrated teeth. In the evolutionary chain of extinct sharks, the Giant Great White Shark, Carcharocles chubutensis, was preceded by Carcharocles auriculatus, also known as the Giant Great White Shark from the Eocene epoch (34,000,000 to 56,000,000 years ago), by the Megatooth Shark, Carcharocles angustidens from the Oligocene and Miocene epochs (22,000,000 to 35,000,000 years ago), and by the Megatooth Shark, Carcharocles megalodon from the Neogene epoch (2,000,000 to 23,000,000 years ago), which is also the largest of all known fish exceeding 18 m (60 feet) in length and 228,000 kg (500,000 lbs) in weight. These extinct sharks are currently known from, and differentiated by, their fossilized teeth since their bone structures were made of cartilage and poorly preserved. The Giant Great White Shark, Carcharocles chubutensis, had side teeth cusps that almost merged with the main blade. Their teeth had slant heights of up to 13.0 cm (5.1 inches); from these teeth measurements, it is estimated that they were 12.2 m (40 feet) in length.

Fossilized remains of the Giant Great White Sharks have been found globally indicating that they were present in all tropical waters.

The Giant Great White Sharks are believed to have become extinct 1,500,000 years ago due to the arrival of the ice age which generated colder waters, a 91 m (300 foot)-drop in oceanic water levels eliminating shallow warm water breeding grounds, and the simultaneous extinction of several of their favorite food sources. They were believed to be a top apex predator that consumed fish, sea turtles, sirenids, and whales but were in strong competition with the Raptorial Sperm Whales, Livyatan melvillei and the larger Megatooth Shark. The Great White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias, is believed to be their only currently living relative.