Blacktip Sawtail Catshark - Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

In 1906, the Carnegie Museum purchased an extensive collection of fishes assembled from the markets of Takao (Kaohsiung), Taiwan by Hans Sauter. American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Robert Earl Richardson described several new species from the collection in a 1909 issue of Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, including a catshark of the genus Pristiurus that they named in Sauter's honor. Jordan and Richardson referenced six syntypes 30–36 cm (12–14 in) long in their description, of which four survive to the present day. Later authors have recognized Pristiurus as a junior synonym of the genus Galeus. A 2005 phylogenetic study, based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, found that this species, G. eastmani, and G. gracilis form a clade apart from G. melastomus and G. murinus.