Crocodile Against A Shark

After being shuffled between the genera Carcharias and Odontaspis in the family Odontaspididae by various authors, in 1973 Leonard Compagno resurrected Jean Cadenat's 1963 subgenus Pseudocarcharias from synonymy for this species and placed it within its own family. The morphology of the crocodile shark suggests affinity with the megamouth shark (Megachasmidae), basking shark (Cetorhinidae), thresher sharks (Alopiidae), and mackerel sharks (Lamnidae). More recent phylogenetic analyses, based on mitochondrial DNA, have suggested that the crocodile shark is closely related to either the megamouth shark or the sand sharks (Odontaspididae). Alternately, analysis based on dentition suggests that the closest relatives of the crocodile shark are the thresher sharks, followed by the mackerel sharks. Fossil Pseudocarcharias teeth dating to the Serravallian age (13.6–11.6 Ma) of the Miocene epoch have been found in Italy, and are identical to those of the modern-day crocodile shark.
Description
The crocodile shark has a spindle-shaped body with a short head and a bulbous, pointed snout. The eyes are very large and lack nictating membranes (protective third eyelids). The five pairs of gill slits are long, extending onto the dorsal surface. The sizable, arched jaws can be protruded almost to the tip of the snout and contain large teeth, shaped like spikes in the front and knives on the sides. There are fewer than 30 tooth rows in either jaw; in the upper jaw, the first two large teeth are separated from the lateral teeth by a row of small intermediate teeth.