Carcharodon hubbelli, or the Hubbell's white shark, is an extinct species of shark known from fossils found in the Pisco Formation in south-west Peru, the Bahia Inglesa Formation of Chile and the Purisima formation in Central California. The shark is a transitional species, showing intermediate features between present-day great white sharks and smaller, prehistoric mako sharks. It is believed to be a descendant of Carcharodon (Isurus) hastalis. Its teeth are weakly serrated until they near the crown, whereupon the serrations disappear. This feature is shared with the teeth of Carcharomodus.
A tooth from Carcharodon hubbelli. Note the weak serrations that fade as they work down towards the tip of the tooth.
This shark was named in honour of Gordon Hubbell (the scientist who recovered the specimen from a farmer who found it in 1988) in recognition of his contributions to shark palaeontology. It is known from a single specimen consisting of a complete and beautifully preserved set of jaws with 222 teeth and 45 vertebrae. The discovery of C. hubbelli indicates that the species Carcharomodus escheri was an evolutionary dead-end, rather than the species that gave rise to the great white.
Biology and Behavior[]
Carcharodon hubbelli is likely to have had similar behavior to the great white, and likely closely resembled it. Though it is not known what exactly the diet of this shark was, it can be implied that prey items for this species included early seals and sea lions, small whales and dolphins, the strange marine mammals known as desmostylians, marine ground sloths, turtles, other sharks, and large fish. It would likely have avoided the larger C. megalodon, which it shared habitat with, and probably competed with their young for food. It may have been a coastal species, as the larger adult C. megalodon might have hunted this shark as prey.