Carcharodon

Carcharodon, a genus of sharks belonging to the order Lamnidae, known in a fossil state from Cretaceous times and represented by one living species, C. rondeletii, the most formidable of existing sharks, as were its congeners of those of past ages. It now attains a length of 40 feet, with triangular teeth with serrate edges, 2-1/2 inches long and 1-3/4 inches wide; but species in Tertiary strata had teeth five inches long and four wide. These were widely distributed, being found in the Suffolk and Antwerp Crag, in Malta, where they are sold as "the veritable teeth-of St. Paul," in Egypt, New Zealand, Jamaica, South Carolina, and in Florida, where they are largely quarried for export to England for artificial manure.