Cretoxyrhina is an extinct genus of large shark that lived in the Western Interior Sea during the late Cretaceous period. The type species, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, is more commonly known as the Ginsu shark, which was first popularized in reference to the Ginsu knife due to the fact that we compare its feeding mechanism with the "slicing and dicing" when someone uses the knife. It was an apex predator in its ecosystem that prey on small mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, other sharks, large fishes, pterosaurs, and occasionally dinosaurs. The only predators it has are the mosasaurs such as Mosasaurus and Tylosaurus. Unfortunately, Cretoxyrhina is not present during the Maastrichtian stage, leaving the causes of its extinction unknown. It could have failed to compete with other sharks.
Jurassic Park Franchise[]
Cretoxyrhina is present in the art gallery from the Jurassic Park Institute.
Games[]
Jurassic Park: The Game[]
A mural of a Cretoxyrhina along with other marine reptiles is seen in the marine facility.
Trivia[]
- The Mosasaurus in Jurassic World (park) eating sharks may be due to her ancestors eating Cretoxyrhina. Also interestingly young Mosasaurus' in real life may have been preyed upon by Cretoxyrhina.
- It's very unlikely that any were cloned for the original Jurassic Park but may have been planned.
