Otodus is an extinct, cosmopolitan genus of mako sharks that lived from the Paleocene to the Pliocene. The name Otodus comes from the Ancient Greek ὠτ- (ōt-, meaning "ear") and ὀδούς (odoús, meaning "tooth") - thus "ear-shaped tooth". Otodus was probably the apex predator of its time, commonly hunting fish, sea turtles, cetaceans (e.g. whales), and sirenids. There is also potential evidence that Otodus hunted predatory sperm whales; a tooth belonging to an indeterminate 4 m long physeteroid closely resembling that of Acrophyseter discovered at the Nutrien Aurora Phosphate Mine in North Carolina suggests that a megalodon or O. chubutensis may have targeted the sperm whale's head to inflict a fatal bite , with the resulting attack leaving noticeable bite marks on the tooth. Although scavenger behavior cannot be ruled out as a possibility, the placement of the bite marks is more consistent with predatory attacks than with scavenger feeding, as the jaw is not a particularly nutritious area for a shark to feed or concentrate on. The fact that the bite marks were found on the roots of the tooth further suggests that the shark broke the whale's jaw during the bite, indicating that the bite was extremely forceful. The fossil is also notable for being the first known example of an antagonistic interaction between a sperm whale and an otodontid shark recorded in the fossil record.