The megatooth sharks, family Otodontidae, have a complicated taxonomic history. The latest debate concerns the genera Otodus Agassiz, 1838 and Carcharocles Jordan & Hannibal in Jordan, 1923. It is argued either to use Otodus for the whole obliquus-megalodon anagenetic lineage (Shimada et al. 2017) or to split it into Otodus and Carcharocles based on the absence or presence of tooth serrations, respectively (Perez et al. 2018). Although referring to an important taxon, the authorship of the nomen Carcharocles has been consistently cited from the wrong publication. Recent authors (e.g., Cappetta 2012; Pimiento et al. 2013; Ehret & Ebersole 2014; Carrillo-Briceño et al. 2015; Boessenecker 2016; Perez et al. 2018) have attributed it to Jordan & Hannibal (1923). However, the paper by Jordan & Hannibal (1923) was published after the book by Jordan (1923), which contains the actual naming of Carcharocles.