It is an extinct lamnid that lived during the Miocene and that was formerly thought to have been transitional between the broad-toothed "mako" Cosmopolitodus hastalis and the modern great white, but is now considered to be an evolutionary dead-end with the discovery of Carcharodon hubbelli.

The name was combined with the genus Carcharodon in reference to the similarity of C. escheri's dentition with that of the modern great white shark.

Some teeth assigned to the synonym Isurus escheri has been reported in parts of the Pacific Rim including Australia and Peru, but these occurrences now represent a different taxon yet to be evaluated.

[1] In a 2014 study by Kriwet et al., The size estimates of C. escheri were made based on MNU 071-20 and assuming the species' relation to the modern great white.

was also used, which calculated a slightly smaller length of 3.67 m. Another formula by Gottfried et al. (1996) was also used, which bases on the size of the vertebral centra.

A study in 2006 by Cappetta concluded that C. escheri is closely related to the modern great white and moved the taxon back to the genus Carcharodon.

Due to this, it has been speculated in the past to be the transitional species between the great white (Carcharodon carcharias) and the ancient makos (Cosmopolitodus hastalis).

The discovery of Carcharodon hubbelli, which showed stronger transitional features between the two sharks but also filled the missing time periods further supported this claim.