page_title: Cretoxyrhina
section_title: Range and distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Cretoxyrhina / Paleoecology / Range and distribution
caption_attribution_description: English: Fossil of shark Cretodus and turtle Protosphargis
context_page_description: Cretoxyrhina is an extinct genus of large mackerel shark that lived about 107 to 73 million years ago during the late Albian to late Campanian of the Late Cretaceous period. The type species, C. mantelli, is more commonly referred to as the Ginsu shark, first popularized in reference to the Ginsu knife, as its theoretical feeding mechanism is often compared with the "slicing and dicing" when one uses the knife. Cretoxyrhina is traditionally classified as the likely sole member of the family Cretoxyrhinidae but other taxonomic placements have been proposed, such as within the Alopiidae and Lamnidae.
  Measuring up to 8 meters in length and weighing over 4,944 kilograms The calculated weight of a 7-meter individual, Cretoxyrhina was one of the largest sharks of its time. Having a similar appearance and build to the modern great white shark, it was an apex predator in its ecosystem and preyed on a large variety of marine animals including mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, sharks and other large fish, pterosaurs, and occasionally dinosaurs. Its teeth, up to 8 centimeters in height, were razor-like and had thick enamel built for stabbing and slicing prey.
context_section_description: Cretoxyrhina had a cosmopolitan distribution with fossils having been found worldwide. Notable locations include North America, Europe, Israel, and Kazakhstan. Cretoxyrhina mostly occurred in temperate and subtropical zones. It has been found in latitudes as far north as 55° N, where paleoclimatic estimates calculate an average sea surface temperature of 5–10 °C (41–50 °F). Fossils of Cretoxyrhina are most well known in the Western Interior Seaway area, which is now the central United States and Canada. During a speech in 2012, Mikael Siverson noted that Cretoxyrhina individuals living offshore were usually larger than those inhabiting the Western Interior Seaway, some of the offshore C. mantelli fossils yielding total lengths of up to 8 meters (26 ft), possibly 9 meters (30 ft).
caption: The subtropical regions of the Late Cretaceous that Cretoxyrhina inhabited were dominated by sharks and turtles like the Cretodus and Protosphargis in this fossil.
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