Isurus oxyrinchus
The shortfin mako shark, also known as the shortfin mako, blue pointer, or bonito shark, is a species of large mackerel shark. It is commonly referred to as the mako shark, as is the longfin mako shark. The fastest known shark species, able to reach speeds of 74 km/h (46 mph) in bursts, the shortfin mako can attain sizes of more than 4 m (13 ft) in length and weigh over 570 kg (1,260 lb). The species is classified as Endangered by the IUCN.

Fábio Olmos · CC BY 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- shortfin makoPBDB
- Sits inside
- IsurusPBDB
- Diet
- carnivorePBDB, for Lamniformes
- Life habit
- nektonicPBDB, for Lamniformes
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Lamniformes
Time the record covers
At least 48 million years on record.
The record covers at least 48.07 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 0 Mya.
125 occurrences of Isurus oxyrinchus on record, most of them in the Miocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
125 occurrencesThese are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
63 formations
- Navidad Formation6
- Pisco Formation5
- Palos Verdes Sand Formation4
- Chucunaque Formation4
- Senhata Formation4
- Lagos-Portimão Formation4
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The named rock units Isurus oxyrinchus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 39 further formations hold fewer occurrences each and are not listed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Isurus oxyrinchus and its relatives
MioceneWhere Isurus oxyrinchus and its relatives were recorded in the Miocene.
Found in the same rock
2,398 taxa- Otodus megalodon48 sites
- Carcharodon hastalis45 sites
- Hemipristis serra44 sites
- Carcharhinus40 sites
- Carcharias taurus36 sites
- Carcharodon carcharias36 sites
- Galeocerdo aduncus33 sites
- Myliobatis29 sites
- Sphyrna zygaena26 sites
- Squatina20 sites
- Carcharhinus brachyurus19 sites
- Carcharhinus priscus18 sites
- Carcharhinus leucas17 sites
- Galeocerdo cuvier16 sites
- Negaprion brevirostris16 sites
- Raja15 sites
- Aetobatus14 sites
- Dasyatis14 sites
- Negaprion eurybathrodon14 sites
- Pristiophorus13 sites
- Carcharhinus egertoni12 sites
- Carcharias cuspidatus12 sites
- Parotodus benedeni12 sites
- Alopias vulpinus11 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 117 sites for Isurus oxyrinchus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
85 references- Late Miocene chondrichthyans from Lago Bayano, Panama: Functional diversity, environment and biogeography4
- Additions to, and review of, the Miocene shark and ray fauna of Malta4
- Selachian fauna from the Upper Miocene Senhata Formation, Boso Peninsula, Central Japan4
- Vertébrés (crocodiliens, poissons) du Miocène marin de l'Argarve occidentale4
- Early Miocene cartilaginous fishes (Chondrichthyes: Holocephali, Elasmobranchii) from Chile: Diversity and paleobiogeographic implications3
- The late Miocene elasmobranch assemblage from Cerro Colorado (Pisco Formation, Peru)3
- Condrictios fósiles del Plioceno Superior de la Formación Horcón, Región de Valparaíso, Chile central3
- Miocene sharks in the Kendeace and Grand Bay formations of Carriacou, The Grenadines, Lesser Antilles3
- A review of the Tertiary fossil Cetacea (Mammalia) localities in Australia3
- Late Mesozoic and Cenozoic fish faunas of Japan3
- Revision of Neogene Mackerel Shark of Genus Isurus from Japan3
- Geology and biostratigraphy of the Potomac River Cliffs at Stratford Hall, Westmoreland County, Virginia2
Each of the 125 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 73 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content2
Picture of Isurus oxyrinchus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Fábio Olmos
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Credit
- MCZ Ichthyology
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Isurus oxyrinchus · MCZ:Ich:37994
The description on this site
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itIsurus through timeFormations of the MioceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rafinesque 1810