†Great White Ancestor

Scientific Name(s): Carcharodon hastalis, Cosmopolitodus hastalis, Isurus hastalis

Nicknames: Mako, hastalis

General Abundance (Peace River): Somewhat Common- Somewhat Uncommon

Typical tooth size: 1 inch or less (?)

Max Tooth Size: 3+ inches

Facts:

+Long thought to be closely related to modern mako sharks, they are the ancestors of the modern great white (teeth are nearly identical except great white teeth are serrated)

+Hastalis teeth from the west Atlantic are broader than those from the East Atlantic, the former sometimes called C. xiphodon, but most researchers don't seem to recognize a species split.

+Another closely related species (C. escheri, from europe) had faint serrations, but it was not a transitional form to the modern great white. The great white evolved serrations from sharks at least off the Eastern Pacific.