Sand Tiger Shark - Taxonomy

Taxonomy

The sand tiger shark's classification, Carcharias taurus was originally determined by Constantine Rafinesque, from a specimen caught off the coast of Sicily. Its taxonomic classification has been long disputed by shark experts. Twenty-seven years after Rafinesque's original naming, Müller and Henle, German biologists, changed the genus name from C. taurus to Triglochis taurus. The following year, Swiss-American naturalist Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz reclassified the shark as Odontaspis cuspidata based upon examples of fossilized teeth. Agassiz's name was used until 1961 when three paleontologists and ichthyologists, W. Tucker, E. I. White, and N. B. Marshall, requested the shark be returned to the genus Carcharias. The experts' request was rejected and Odontaspis was approved by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN). When experts concluded that taurus belongs after Odontaspis, the name was changed to Odontaspis taurus. In 1977, a South African shark expert, Leonard J. V. Compagno, challenged the Odontaspis taurus name and substituted Eugomphodus, a somewhat unknown classification, for Odontaspis. Many taxonomists questioned his change stating there was not a significant difference between Odontaspis and Carcharias. After changing the name to Eugomphodus taurus, Compagno successfully advocated in establishing the sharks current classification as Carcharias taurus. Carcharias taurus means "bull shark". The ICZN approved this name, and today the name is used among shark experts.