Whitetip Reef Shark - Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

The whitetip reef shark was first described by the German naturalist Eduard Rüppell as Carcharias obesus, in the 1837 Fische des Rothen Meeres (Fishes of the Red Sea). His choice of the specific epithet obesus was curious, given that this shark is actually quite slender. Later in 1837, Johannes Müller and Friedrich Henle moved this species into its own genus Triaenodon, from the Greek triaena meaning "trident", and odon meaning "tooth". As Rüppell did not originally designate a holotype, in 1960 a 31-cm-long specimen caught off Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was made the species lectotype. Other common names for this shark include blunthead shark, light-tip shark, reef whitetip shark, and whitetip shark.

Once placed in the family Triakidae, the whitetip reef shark is now recognized by most authors as belonging to the family Carcharhinidae on the basis of morphological characters, such as a full nictitating membrane, well-developed precaudal pit, strong lower caudal fin lobe, and scroll-like intestinal valves. Morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses suggest the whitetip reef shark is grouped with the lemon sharks (Negaprion) and the sliteye shark (Loxodon) in occupying an intermediate position on the carcharhinid evolutionary tree, between most basal genera (Galeocerdo, Rhizoprionodon, and Scoliodon) and the most derived (Carcharhinus and Sphyrna).