Blackmouth Catshark - Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque briefly described the blackmouth catshark in his 1810 Caratteri di alcuni nuovi generi e nuove specie di animali e piante della Sicilia: con varie osservazioni sopra i medesimi, wherein he referenced the distinctive black interior of its mouth (from which the specific epithet melastomus is derived). No type specimen was designated. This species may also be called the black-mouthed dogfish. A 2005 phylogenetic analysis that included five Galeus species, based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, found that G. melastomus forms a clade with G. murinus, apart from the clade of G. eastmani, G. gracilis, and G. sauteri. The oldest documented blackmouth catshark fossils come from the northern Apennines and date to the Lower Pliocene (5.3–3.6 Ma).