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The great white shark is related to four other 'Mackerel' sharks in the family Lamnidae (Makos, porbeagles and salmon sharks).
This species was originally described by Linnaeus (1758) as Squalus carcharias, with a type locality given as 'European Seas', essentially the Mediterranean.
Considerable confusion between Linnaeus' S. carcharias and various Mediterranean carcharhinids (requiem sharks), and especially the sandbar shark Carcharhinus plumbeus, gave rise to some misrepresentative species accounts by European writers until the 1900's.
Andrew Smith's nomination (in Müller & Henle, 1838) of Carcharodon for the white shark
genus largely eradicated future confusion in nomenclature.
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