Mako shark
genus of fishes
Mako sharks are predatory mackerel sharks of the genus Isurus (meaning "equal tail"). They are largely pelagic, and are fast, predatory fish capable of swimming at speeds of up to 50 km/h (31 mph). The two species of mako sharks are sexually dimorphic, with females being larger than males, and are large sharks. Both species are classified as "Endangered" by the IUCN.
Two species of mako shark currently exist: The shortfin mako shark, and the longfin mako shark. The shortfin mako shark is the fastest shark in the world, capable of speeds of 74 km/h (46 mph) in bursts. The longfin mako shark is the larger and slower of the two, reaching upwards of 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length and weighing over 70 kg (150 lb); it is the second largest shark in its family, Lamnidae, after the great white shark.
Fossil history and evolution
Although fossil teeth of Isurus have been reported from as early as the Late Cretaceous, they are likely to be of a shark with a similar dentition, Cretoxyrhina; since at one point they were considered to be the same (now defunct) genus Oxyrhina, and modern referrals to Isurus in the Cretaceous are scant. The earliest appearance of Isurus proper seems to be during the Oligocene with Isurus desori.
There has been much debate and speculation about the evolutionary origin and relationships between Isurus and its closest relatives, including the extant great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). Molecular clock analyses place the last common ancestor of Isurus and Carcharodon between 43–60 million years ago during the Late Paleocene-Early Eocene.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 11, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q171298. The Library of Congress control number is sh85068767. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mako shark” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.