Collection: Benedeni Shark

Parotodus benedeni, aka the “False Mako” Shark and Benedeni Shark, is a very rare extinct species of large shark that lived throughout the world oceans during the Miocene and Pliocene epochs alongside the likes of Megalodon. It grew to lengths of 25 feet long and would have fed on large fish, smaller sharks, and marine mammals. Because of its rarity and large size, its teeth are very valuable to collectors. However, this same rarity, and the lack of other fossils besides teeth, means no one can figure out exactly what kind of shark this thing was. Benedenis have been speculated to be Otodontids like Megalodon, Giant Thresher Sharks, Ancestral White Sharks, and even part of extinct groups of sharks that would have otherwise gone extinct with the dinosaurs like the Cardabiodonts.