Updated 9 Feb. 2024
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Centroscyllium Müller & Henle 1841 centrum (L.), from kéntron (Gr. κέντρον), prickle or sharp point, allusion not explained, probably referring to spines on both dorsal fins; scyllium, Latinization of skylion (Gr. σκύλιον), small dog or whelp, i.e., a small shark (sharks were derogatorily called “dogs” or “sea dogs” in ancient times)

Centroscyllium excelsum Shirai & Nakaya 1990 Latin for high or elevated, referring to “very high” first dorsal fin, its height equal to or slightly larger than the length of its base

Centroscyllium fabricii (Reinhardt 1825) in honor of Danish naturalist, missionary and ethnographer Otto Fabricius (1744–1822), the first to study the fishes of Greenland (including this shark)

Centroscyllium granulatum Günther 1887 Neo-Latin for grainy (granosus in classical Latin), referring to “epidermoid productions” of head and “granulated” body, much coarser than that of C. fabricii

Centroscyllium kamoharai Abe 1966 in honor of ichthyologist Toshiji Kamohara (1901–1972), Kochi University, for his generosity to all ichthyologists

Centroscyllium nigrum Garman 1899 Latin (neuter) for black, referring to its deep-black coloration

Centroscyllium ornatum (Alcock 1889) Latin for adorned or decorated, probably referring to “head with minute white spots in the shape of a lute; ventrals with pale tips”

Centroscyllium ritteri Jordan & Fowler 1903 in honor of William Emerson Ritter (1856–1944), University of California, for his work on the tunicates and enteropneusta (acorn worms) of the Pacific Ocean

Etmopterus Rafinesque 1810 etymology not explained, presumably from etmagen, Latinized from tmḗgō (Gr. τμήγω), cut or cleave; pterus, from pterón (Gr. πτερόν) or ptéryx (πτέρυξ), wing or fin, referring to “laciniate” (i.e., frayed) fins of E. aculeatus (=spinax) specimen that Rafinesque examined

Etmopterus alphus Ebert, Straube, Leslie & Weigmann 2016 alphós (Gr. ἀλφός), a type of leprosy typified by dull-white lesions, referring to characteristic white spot on cheeks

Etmopterus bigelowi Shirai & Tachikawa 1993 in honor of Henry B. Bigelow (1879–1967), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who, with William C. Schroeder and Stewart Springer, provided the first descriptive account of this species (under the name E. pusillus) in 1955

Etmopterus brachyurus Smith & Radcliffe 1912 short-tailed, from brachýs (Gr. βραχύς), short, and ourá (Gr. οὐρά), tail, referring to shorter caudal fin compared with E. lucifer

Etmopterus brosei Ebert, Leslie & Weigmann 2021 in honor of the late Barrie Rose (d. 2016), “friend and colleague for many years, an excellent naturalist who made a life-long study of vertebrate diversity and a love of chondrichthyans, and affectionately known as ‘Brose’ to his friends” (a pelagic birder and tour guide in Cape Town, South Africa, “Brose” died after slipping from sea cliffs while angling)

Etmopterus bullisi Bigelow & Schroeder 1957 in honor of American marine biologist Harvey R. Bullis, Jr. (1924–1992), presumably for collecting or supplying type, and/or furnishing the authors with other fishes collected off the coasts of Florida

Etmopterus burgessi Schaaf-Da Silva & Ebert 2006 in honor of American ichthyologist George Burgess (b. 1949), Florida Museum of Natural History, for his contributions to the systematics of Etmopterus

Etmopterus carteri Springer & Burgess 1985 in honor of American ichthyologist Carter Gilbert (1930–2022), Florida Museum of Natural History, for his 1967 revision of hammerhead sharks

Etmopterus caudistigmus Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 cauda (L.), tail; stigmus, from stígma (Gr. στίγμα) or stigmḗ (στιγμή), mark or spot, referring to oval markings on caudal fin

Etmopterus compagnoi Fricke & Koch 1990 in honor of American ichthyologist Leonard J. V. Compagno (b. 1943), for his research on South African sharks

Etmopterus decacuspidatus Chan 1966 decem (L.), from dekás (Gr. δεκάς), ten; cuspidatus (L.), pointed, referring to five (sometimes four) pairs of cusplets on each side of every upper tooth

Etmopterus dianthus Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 Latinization of dianthḗs (Gr. διανθής), double flowering, but in this case named for the carnation genus Dianthus (often called “pinks”), referring to the shark’s pink upper body color in life

Etmopterus dislineatus Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 dis (L.), in two or asunder (i.e., broken); lineatus (L.), lined, referring to dark broken lines resembling dots and dashes extending horizontally along body

Etmopterus evansi Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 in honor of Australian fishery scientist David Evans, who “meticulously selected and donated valuable taxonomic specimens … collected by commercial trawlers from the tropical deepwater of Western Australia”

Etmopterus fusus Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 Latin for spindle, referring to its torpedo-like (fusiform) shape

Etmopterus gracilispinis Krefft 1968 gracilis (L.), thin or slender; spinis, from spina (L.), thorn, referring to thin spines on both dorsal fins and/or short, slender thorn or prickle on scales

Etmopterus granulosus (Günther 1880) granum (L.), seed or grain; –osus, Latin suffix connoting fullness, referring to rough conical denticles on skin

Etmopterus hillianus (Poey 1861) -[i]anus (L.), belonging to: Jamaican magistrate and amateur naturalist Richard Hill (1795–1872), for his “Contributions to the Natural History of the Shark” (1851) and other writings on fishes

Etmopterus joungi Knuckey, Ebert & Burgess 2011 in honor of Shoou-Jeng Joung (b. 1958), National Taiwan Ocean University, for his contributions to chondrichthyan research in Taiwan and for his assistance and support during field surveys conducted by the second and third authors in Taiwanese fish markets

Etmopterus lailae Ebert, Papastamatiou, Kajiura & Wetherbee 2017 in honor of Laila Mostello-Wetherbee, shark enthusiast and daughter of co-author Brad Wetherbee

Etmopterus lii Ng, Liu & Joung 2024 in honor of Yong-Tai Li, captain of the fishing vessel Xin Yong Tai, for his assistance in not only obtaining type specimens, but also many other deep-sea organisms from the South China Sea for other researchers, and thus making a “great” contribution to marine science research

Etmopterus litvinovi Parin & Kotlyar 1990 in honor of Russian ichthyologist Fedor Fedorovich Litvinov (1954–2011), who helped collect type aboard the research vessel Professor Schtockman

Etmopterus lucifer Jordan & Snyder 1902 lux (L.), light; –fer, from fero (L.), to have or bear, referring to photophores on belly

Etmopterus marshae Ebert & Van Hees 2018 in honor of Marsha Englebrecht, Facilities Curator for the Aquarium of the Bay (San Francisco, California, USA), and before that Director of Shark Experience at Marine World Africa USA (Vallejo, California) for her “innovative” contributions to elasmobranch husbandry

Etmopterus molleri (Whitley 1939) in honor of Knud Moller, trawler captain who collected holotype (among other pelagic fishes for the Australian Museum)

Etmopterus parini Dolganov & Balanov 2018 patronym not identified but clearly in honor of ichthyologist Nikolai Vasil’evich Parin (1932–2012), P. P. Shirov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, who co-described E. litvinovi in 1990

Etmopterus perryi Springer & Burgess 1985 in honor of American marine biologist Perry W. Gilbert (1912–2000), Director, Mote Marine Laboratory (Sarasota, Florida, USA), for his contributions to the knowledge of elasmobranch reproduction and other aspects of shark biology

Etmopterus polli Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer 1953 in honor of Belgian ichthyologist Max Poll (1908–1991), who discovered this shark and sent specimens to Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology

Etmopterus princeps Collett 1904 Latin for chief, first or foremost, allusion not explained, possibly referring to larger size (largest Etmopterus in the western Atlantic) compared with E. spinax

Etmopterus pseudosqualiolus Last, Burgess & Séret 2002 pseudo-, from pseúdēs (Gr. ψεύδης), false; Squaliolus (Dalatiidae), a genus of small squaloid sharks, i.e., although this genus may superficially resemble Squaliolus in body shape, such an appearance is false

Etmopterus pusillus (Lowe 1839) Latin for very small (Lowe’s specimens were 28–30 cm in length)

Etmopterus pycnolepis Kotlyar 1990 pycno-, from pyknós (Gr. πυκνός), close, compact or dense; lepis (Gr.), scale, referring to dense rows of denticles on head, trunk and tail

Etmopterus robinsi Schofield & Burgess 1997 in honor of American ichthyologist C. Richard Robins (1928–2020), for his many years of service to systematic ichthyology and his development of the important University of Miami (Florida, USA) ichthyological collection

Etmopterus samadiae White, Ebert, Mana & Corrigan 2017 in honor of evolutionary biologist Sarah Samadi, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN, Paris), one of the key principal investigators of the 2010 and 2012 MNHN expeditions in Papua New Guinea, during which all type specimens were obtained

Etmopterus schultzi Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer 1953 patronym not identified but almost certainly in honor of American ichthyologist Leonard P. Schultz (1901–1986), United States National Museum (later Smithsonian Institution)

Etmopterus sculptus Ebert, Compagno & De Vries 2011 Latin for carved, referring to carved or sculpted appearance of its linear denticles

Etmopterus sentosus Bass, D’Aubrey & Kistnasamy 1976 Latin for thorny, referring to two longitudinal rows of greatly enlarged, hooked denticles along the flanks

Etmopterus sheikoi (Dolganov 1986) in honor of marine biologist Boris A. Sheiko (b. 1957), Laboratory of Ichthyology at the Zoological Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia, and veteran of many oceanographic expeditions to the northwestern Pacific Ocean and northern Bering Sea

Etmopterus spinax (Linnaeus 1758) zoological Neo-Latin for an animal having one or more spines, from spina (L.), thorn, prickle or spine, referring to spines on both dorsal fins

Etmopterus splendidus Yano 1988 Latin for bright or shining, probably referring to purplish-black back and bluish-back underside in life

Etmopterus unicolor (Engelhardt 1912) uni-, from unus (L.), one, referring to uniform dark gray or brown coloration, i.e., without a sharp contrast between dorsal and ventral colors

Etmopterus viator Straube 2011 Latin for traveler, referring to how it occurs in two geographically distant locations in the Southern Hemisphere (off South Africa, Kerguelen Plateau, southern Indian Ocean, and Chatham Rise, New Zealand, southwestern Pacific)

Etmopterus villosus Gilbert 1905 Latin for hairy or shaggy, referring to skin thickly beset with small plates, each bearing a slender spine

Etmopterus virens Bigelow, Schroeder & Springer 1953 Latin for green, referring to its bright-green iridescent belly in life

Trigonognathus Mochizuki & Ohe 1990 trígōnos (Gr. τρίγωνος), triangular; gnáthos (Gr. γνάθος), jaw, referring to its triangular jaws

Trigonognathus kabeyai Mochizuki & Ohe 1990 in memory of Hiromichi Kabeya, captain of the bottom trawler Seiryo-Maru, who collected holotype and paratype in 1986