Isurus hastalis (Cosmopolitodus hastalis)

This catalog contains quality large teeth from the Big-tooth or Broad-tooth “Mako” shark are noted for their wide, unserrrated triangular crowns and large  rectangular roots. These teeth exhibit gray, blue, black, tan, or green colored crowns with gray to black roots. They are very showy, making them an excellent addition to your Mako shark tooth collection. These are top quality Mako teeth from So. Carolina. No repair in this group! There are Miocene age, Hawthorne Formation teeth from coastal South Carolina.  

What’s in a name? For the fifty years, Isurus hastalis was known to me and others as the big Mako shark tooth that collectors sought from Miocene – Pliocene deposits. Everyone wanted to find a big Mako tooth. In 2001, Purdy (Smithsonsian) resurrected Isurus xiphodon for the broad-form Mako teeth at Lee Creek. It made sense, but now it is not considered a valid species. In 1964, Glikman proposed the Cosmopolitodus genus for the "hastalis" shark as Isurus hastalis was related to the Great White shark rather than the Mako. This convention was not adopted in the scientific community until the last decade; particularly with the naming of the Carcharodon hubbelli, the Great White transition tooth (late Miocene). There is also a push to rename the shark formerly known as Isurus hastalis to Carcharodon hastalis recognizing that it is an early form of the Great White shark. Ok, Isurus hastalis and Isurus xiphodon names going away, but the future name for "hastlis" appears to be unsettled. What do we call this shark if it is not a Mako? More to come in my Blog article.

Note - all teeth sizes are slant height unless otherwise noted.