• Question: why is it called a catshark

    Asked by tdm246 to Catshark on 3 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Lesser-Spotted Catshark

      Lesser-Spotted Catshark answered on 3 Nov 2017:

      That’s a good question…I’m not completely sure but it might have something to do with the shape of their eyes which are quite cat-like. Ichthyologists (fish scientists) are sometimes not very creative at naming things and often just lazily named sharks based on mammals that they kind of looked like. There are also tiger sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier) named after their stripes and leopard sharks (Triakis semifasciata) named after their spots. Unhelpfully, neither of these sharks are closely related to catsharks.

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