Sharks are a group of fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorpha (or Selachii), and are the sister group to the rays. However, the term "shark" has also been used for extinct members of the subclass Elasmobranchii outside the Selachimorpha, such as Cladoselache and Xenacanthus.
Until the 16th century, sharks were known to mariners as "sea dogs". The etymology of the word "shark" is uncertain. One theory is that it derives from the Yucatec Maya word xok, pronounced 'shok'. Evidence for this etymology comes from the OED, which notes the name "shark" first came into use after Sir John Hawkins' sailors exhibited one in London in 1569 and used the word "sharke" to refer to the large sharks of the Caribbean Sea.
Evidence for the existence of sharks dates from the Ordovician period, over 450-420 million years ago, before land vertebrates existed and before many plants had colonized the continents. Only scales have been recovered from the first sharks and not all paleontologists agree that these are from true sharks. The oldest generally accepted shark scales are from about 420 million years ago, in the Silurian period.
Sharks belong to the superorder Selachimorpha in the subclass Elasmobranchii in the class Chondrichthyes. The Elasmobranchii also include rays and skates; the Chondrichthyes also include Chimaeras. It is currently thought that the sharks form a polyphyletic group: some sharks are more closely related to rays than they are to some other sharks. The superorder Selachimorpha is divided into Galea (or Galeomorphii), and Squalea.
Jaws of sharks, like those of rays and skates, are not attached to the cranium. The jaw's surface (in comparison to the shark's vertebrae and gill arches) needs extra support due to its heavy exposure to physical stress and its need for strength. It has a layer of tiny hexagonal plates called "tesserae", which are crystal blocks of calcium salts arranged as a mosaic.