Otodus macrotus was named by Agassiz (1843) [Eocene; Pacific North America, Atlantic North America, Belgium, Paris Basin, Ukraine, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Chile, Seymour Island].

It was recombined as Lamna macrota by Woodward (1889); it was recombined as Odontaspis macrota by Bohm (1926), Leriche (1942), White (1956) and Thurmond and Jones (1981); it was recombined as Odontaspis (Synodontaspis) macrotus by Cassier (1966); it was recombined as Carcharias macrota by Long (1992) and Long and Stilwell (2000); it was recombined as Striatolamia macrota by Delete (1843), Cuny and Risnes (2005), Maisch et al. (2014), Pledge et al. (2015), Case et al. (2015), Ebersole et al. (2019) and Cantalice et al. (2019).