''Carcharias'' is a genus of sand tiger sharks belonging to the family Odontaspididae. Once bearing many prehistoric species, all have gone extinct with the exception of the critically endangered sand tiger shark.

Description

''Carcharias'' are 2.5 m long on average. The maximum weight of the shark is 158.8 kg. Differentiating species of sharks is usually done by locating and measuring their fins. The second

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

and the anal fin of ''Carcharias'' are very large. In fact, they are about equal in size. The pectoral fins are triangular and only slightly larger than the dorsal fins. The teeth are very long and narrow with sharp points. The teeth are smooth with no ridges. The tail is one third of the entire body size.

Diet

''Carcharias'' species hunt bony fish, small sharks, rays, squids, crabs, and lobsters.

Habitat

Sand tiger sharks live in water depths ranging from 0 to 190 meters. They are found in the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans. They are commonly found in surf zones.

Species

With the Greek name 'Carcharias' literally translating to “shark”, many presently extant species have been placed into this genus before being moved to different genera and orders.

Extant species

* '' Carcharias taurus''

Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

, 1810 (sand tiger shark)

Species previously described in this genus

* '' Carcharias acutidens'' Rüppell, 1837 (accepted as '' Negaprion acutidens'') * '' Carcharias borneensis'' Seale, 1910 (accepted as '' Carcharhinus sealei'') * '' Carcharias brachyrhynchos'' Bleeker, 1859 (accepted as '' Carcharhinus amboinensis'') * '' Carcharias brevipinna'' Müller & Henle, 1839 (accepted as '' Carcharhinus brevipinna'') * '' Carcharias falciformis'' Müller & Henle, 1839 (accepted as ''

Carcharhinus falciformis The silky shark (''Carcharhinus falciformis''), also known by numerous names such as blackspot shark, gray whaler shark, olive shark, ridgeback shark, sickle shark, sickle-shaped shark and sickle silk shark, is a species of requiem shark, in the f ...

'') * '' Carcharias fronto'' Jordan & Gilbert, 1882 (accepted as '' Negaprion brevirostris'') * '' Carcharias hemiodon'' Müller & Henle, 1839 (accepted as '' Carcharhinus hemiodon'') * '' Carcharias sealei'' Pietschmann, 1913 (accepted as '' Carcharhinus sealei'')

Extinct species

Extinct species within this genus lived from the

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

period to the

Quaternary The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...

period (from 99.7 to 0.012 Ma). Fossils have been found all over the world, especially in the

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

and

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

sediments of

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, the

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and

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, in the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...

and the

, as well as in the

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, the

and

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

. Species from the fossil record include: MenuhaCarchariasHolmdelensis

Cretaceous species

* '' Carcharias tenuiplicatus'' * '' Carcharias holmdelensis''

Maastrichtian The Maastrichtian () is, in the ICS geologic timescale, the latest age (uppermost stage) of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series, the Cretaceous Period or System, and of the Mesozoic Era or Erathem. It spanned the interval from ...

* '' Carcharias samhammeri'' Late Cretaceous * '' Carcharias heathi'' Late Cretaceous

Paleogene species

*'' Carcharias acutissima'' ( Agassiz, 1844) - Late Eocene *'' Carcharias atlasi'' *'' Carcharias hopei'' ( Agassiz, 1843) - Late Palaeocene - Eocene *'' Carcharias koerti'' (Stromer, 1905) *'' Carcharias robusta''? (Leriche, 1921) - Early Eocene *'' Carcharias teretidens'' - maybe placed into its own genus as ''Sylvestrilamia teretidens'' *'' Carcharias teretidens'' (White, 1931), - Late Palaeocene - Eocene *'' Carcharias tingitana'' (Arambourg, 1952) *'' Carcharias vincenti'' (Woodward, 1899) *'' Carcharias whitei'' (Arambourg, 1952) - Paleocene

Neogene

*'' Carcharias acutissima'' (Agassiz, 1843), Oligocene - Pliocene *'' Carcharias reticulata'' (Probst, 1879), Oligocene - Miocene *'' Carcharias cuspidata'' (Agassiz, 1843), Oligocene - Miocene *'' Carcharias taurus'' Rafinesque, 1810, Pliocene - Present *'' Carcharias cuspidata'' (Agassiz, 1843), Pliocene - Miocene *''Carcharias'' sp. - unidentified but maybe similar to the ''Carcharias contortidens'' as described by Agassiz in 1843, from the Miocene. *'' Carcharias reticulata'' (Kent 1994) maybe classified as ''Odontaspis acutissma'' (Agassiz 1843) from the Miocene.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q578852 Odontaspididae Extant Cretaceous first appearances Shark genera Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Fish genera with one living species