Great white shark

The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), also known as the white shark, white pointer, or simply great white, is the largest living macropredatory shark and fish. It is a mackerel shark and closely related to the mako sharks, the porbeagle, and the salmon shark. It is a robustly built species with a grayish upperside and a white underside. Females average 4.6 to 4.9 m (15 to 16 ft) in length and weigh 1,000–1,900 kg (2,200–4,200 lb) while males average 3.4 to 4.0 m (11 to 13 ft) and weigh 680–1,000 kg (1,500–2,200 lb). They are estimated to reach a length close to 6.1 m (20 ft) and a weight of over 2,495 kg (5,501 lb). The shark has about 300 triangular, serrated teeth that are continuously replaced. Its massive, fatty liver can reach over a quarter of its body weight and provides buoyancy and stores energy. White sharks are partially warm-blooded, an adaptation that allows them to remain active in colder waters.

White sharks inhabit tropical and temperate ocean waters around the world and can be found both along the coast and further out to sea. Populations are most concentrated at the Pacific and Atlantic sides of North America and in the waters of southern Africa and Oceania. They are a highly migratory species, traveling between the coast and open ocean and even between continents. The great white shark preys on marine mammals such as pinnipeds and dolphins, as well as fish, including other sharks, and cephalopods. It is also a prolific scavenger of whale carcasses. Though an apex predator, the species is sometimes preyed on by orcas. White sharks are generally solitary, but gather in aggregations, particularly at feeding sites. They may communicate and establish dominance hierarchies with body language. Reproduction in the species is less understood, but is known to be ovoviviparous, with pups hatching from eggs inside the female before being born live. Juvenile white sharks typically inhabit shallower water and cannot eat marine mammals until they reach around 3 m (9.8 ft).

The great white shark has had a fearsome reputation among the public. It is featured in the 1974 novel Jaws and its 1975 film adaptation, both of which portray it as a ferocious man-eater. In reality, white sharks normally do not prey on humans and the majority of bites are due to curiosity or possibly mistaken identity. Many attempts have been made to keep the species in captivity, but specimens either ended up dying or being released, and no aquarium currently houses them. White shark aggregations have attracted tourists who may view them from boats or in shark cages.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the white shark as a vulnerable species globally and critically endangered regionally in European and Mediterranean waters. As of 2025, it is estimated to have declined in numbers by 30–49% over the past 159 years. Major threats have included bycatching by commercial fisheries, recreational fishing, and trapping in protective drum-lines and gillnets along beaches. Several governments have enacted protections for the species, including bans on catching and killing.

Etymology and naming

The most common English names for the species include great white shark, white shark, and Australian variant white pointer. These names are thought to refer to its white underside, which is noticeable in dead sharks lying upside down. Colloquial use favours the name great white shark or simply great white, with great perhaps emphasizing the size and power of the species. Scientists typically use white shark, as no "lesser white shark" exists for comparison, though some use white shark to refer to all members of the Lamnidae.

The scientific generic name Carcharodon is a portmanteau of two Ancient Greek words, the prefix carchar- is derived from κάρχαρος (kárkharos), which means "sharp". The suffix -odon derives from ὀδών (odṓn), which translates to "tooth". The specific name carcharias is from the καρχαρίας (karkharías), the Ancient Greek word for shark. The great white shark was one of the species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae and assigned the scientific name Squalus carcharias, Squalus being the genus in which he placed all sharks. By the 1810s, the shark was recognized as needing to be placed in a new genus, but not until 1838 did Sir Andrew Smith coin the name Carcharodon as the new genus.

A few attempts have been made to describe and classify the white shark before Linnaeus. One of the earliest mentions of it in literature as a distinct type of animal appears in Pierre Belon's 1553 book De aquatilibus duo, cum eiconibus ad vivam ipsorum effigiem quoad ejus fieri potuit, ad amplissimum cardinalem Castilioneum. In it, he illustrated and described the shark under the name Canis carcharias based on the ragged nature of its teeth and its perceived similarities with dogs. Another name used for the white shark around this time was Lamia, first coined by Guillaume Rondelet in his 1554 book Libri de Piscibus Marinis, which also identified it as the fish that swallowed the prophet Jonah in biblical texts.

Taxonomy and evolution

The white shark is the sole recognized extant species in the genus Carcharodon, and is one of five extant species belonging to the family Lamnidae. Other members of this family include the mako sharks, porbeagle, and salmon shark. The family belongs to the Lamniformes, the order of mackerel sharks.

Phylogeny

The modern clade of the Lamnidae is estimated to have emerged between 65 and 46 million years ago (Mya) based on a 1996 molecular clock using the mitochondrial DNA gene cytochrome b. Most phylogenetic analyses based on molecular data or anatomical features place the great white shark as the sister species to the mako shark clade with the Lamna clade as the most basal in the family. Under this topology, the 1996 clock dated the most recent common ancestor of the great white shark and the makos between 60 and 43 Mya. A more recent 2024 clock using genome-wide autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms estimated a later date of 41.6 Mya. A minority of analyses recovered an alternate placement of the great white shark as the most basal member. A 2025 clock using the whole mitogenome with this topology estimated the divergence between the lineages of the great white shark and other lamnids at 47.4 Mya.

Fossil history

The great white shark first unambiguously appears in the fossil record in the Pacific basin about 5.3 mya at the beginning of the Pliocene. Although there are few claims of fossils dated as early as 16 mya, their validity is doubted as mislabeled or misidentified. Like all sharks, the great white's skeleton is made primarily of soft cartilage that does not preserve well. The overwhelming majority of fossils as a result are teeth. Nevertheless, paleontologists have confidently traced the emergence of the great white shark and its immediate ancestry to a large extinct shark known as Carcharodon hastalis. This species appeared worldwide during the Early Miocene (~23 mya) and had teeth alike to the modern great white shark's, except that the cutting edges lacked serrations. The form was probably derived from an ancient lineage of large white sharks that arose in the early Eocene (~56-48 mya) from a primitive mako-like shark. C. hastalis occupied a middle to high trophic position in its ecosystems and was probably piscivorous (fish-eating) with some addition of marine mammals to its diet.

Around 8 mya, a Pacific stock of C. hastalis evolved into C. hubbelli. This divergent lineage, sometimes described as a chronospecies, was characterized by a gradual development of serrations over the next few million years. They were initially fine and sparse but a mosaic of fossils throughout the Pacific basin document an increase in quantity and coarseness over time, eventually becoming fully serrated as the great white shark's by 5.3 mya. Serrations are more effective at cutting prey than non-serrated edges, facilitating further specialization towards a mammal diet. It is likely the ancestral unserrated stock had already been regularly targeting marine mammals for millions of years, and therefore maintained an environment favoring rapid selection towards increasingly serrated teeth once a mutation for incipient serrations appeared. Teeth from the same strata may exhibit significant variation in serration development and morphology, which may be indicative of persistent interbreeding with C. hastalis for at least some time. The great white shark dispersed as soon as it emerged, with fossils in the Mediterranean, North Sea Basin, and South Africa occurring as early as 5.3–5 mya. Colonization of the northwestern Atlantic appeared to have delayed, with fossils absent until 3.3 mya.