Blurred Lanternshark - Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

Japanese ichthyologists Shigeru Shirai and Hiroyuki Tachikawa described the blurred lanternshark in a 1993 article in the scientific journal Copeia, as part of a taxonomic revision of the Etmopterus pusillus species group. Shirai and Tachikawa found that the species group comprises the smooth lanternshark (E. pusillus) and a hitherto unrecognized second species, which they named E. bigelowi in honor of Henry B. Bigelow (who, along with William C. Schroeder and Stewart Springer, first described the blurred lanternshark in 1955, but did not see it as being separate from E. pusillus). The E. pusillus species group is distinguished from other lanternsharks in having truncate (ending in a flat crown as though the tip were cut off), irregularly arranged dermal denticles. This species may also be referred to as the smooth lanternshark or the blurred smooth lanternshark.