[4][5] Like other elasmobranchs, the skeleton of Otodus was composed of cartilage and not bone, resulting in relatively few preserved skeletal structures appearing within the fossil record.

[11] Comparative studies of the centrum radii and growth rings on the vertebrae of O. obliquus and the extant great white shark through X-rays have concluded that the sizes of the vertebrae at birth are similar, meaning that the offspring of both species would have the same size (between 1.1 and 1.6 m (3.6 and 5.2 ft) in length); they also revealed that they grew at the same rate until reaching 10 years of age, during which O. obliquus would have become sexually mature and attained a growth rate faster than that of the extant great white shark.

[12] Like contemporaneous sharks, at least two species of Otodus (O. angustidens and O. megalodon) made use of nursery areas to birth their young in, specifically warm-water coastal environments with large amounts of food and protection from predators.

[6][15] Otodus was likely the apex predator of its time and commonly preyed upon fish, sea turtles, cetaceans (e.g. whales), and sirenids.

[16] There is also potential evidence that Otodus hunted raptorial sperm whales; a tooth belonging to an undetermined 4 m (13 ft) long physeteroid closely resembling those of Acrophyseter discovered in the Nutrien Aurora Phosphate Mine in North Carolina suggests that a megalodon or O. chubutensis may have aimed for the head of the sperm whale in order to inflict a fatal bite, the resulting attack leaving distinctive bite marks on the tooth.

[18] Scientists determined that Otodus evolved into the genus Carcharocles, given substantial fossil evidence in the form of transitional teeth.

This species has been found in Africa, North America, Central Asia, and Europe, dating from 47.8 to 38 milion years ago.