Megalodon Tooth

myminifactory

Megalodon, meaning "big tooth", from Ancient Greek: "big, mighty," and "tooth" whose stem is odont-, as seen in its genitive case form, was an extinct shark species that lived around 15.9 to 2.6 million years ago during the Cenozoic Era, specifically from middle Miocene to end of Pliocene times. The classification of this ancient predator has been a subject of debate for nearly a century and continues to be contested. Two main theories exist: one places it under the family Lamnidae as Carcharodon megalodon, while the other puts it in the Otodontidae family as Carcharocles megalodon. As a result, scientists often shorten its name to C. megalodon in scientific literature.