Subject: Species names for soupfin
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 13:04:30 -0200
From: Leonard
To: elasmo-l@umassd.edu

Dear Elasmo-L

About the specific name or names of the soupfin, tope, school, or vitamin sharks, genus Galeorhinus: I don't have a copy of the latest (1991) AFS checklist (and must pick one up), and so cannot comment on it's continuing use of G. zyopterus for the Eastern North Pacific Galeorhinus.

As with some other temperate-water sharks soupfin sharks seem to form several possibly isolated populations in temperate seas which are separated from one another by the tropics. These include: The school shark of southern Australia and New Zealand; The soupfin shark of Eastern North Pacific; The vitamin shark of the Eastern South Pacific and Western South Atlantic; The tope shark of the Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean; and the vaalhaai or soupfin of temperate southern Africa (South Africa and Namibia). There are also unconfirmed records of soupfin in the Eastern Atlantic off several countries of Tropical West Africa, and a single, unconfirmed record from the Hawaiian Islands. Most of these populations have been accorded separate species names, with the exception of the southern African vaalhaai.

The systematic, nomenclatural and zoogeographic background to the problem, and my reasons for uniting all soupfin sharks in one species,G. galeus (LINNAEUS, 1758), are detailed in the 1984 FAO shark catalog and particularly the 1988 Princeton book Sharks of the Order Carcharhiniformes. Different soupfin species, including G. zyopterus, were distinguished morphologically, and comparisons of descriptions and specimens of Galeorhinus from all of the presumably isolated populations did not suggest any morphological differences indicative of separate species. Obviously there is a need for further work (as suggested in the 1988 book) including genetic comparisons of soupfins from different areas.

Leonard Compagno

Galeocerdo galeus Bourdon illustration adapted from Compagno 1984

Subject: Galeorhinus
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 10:14:18 -0500
From: biojfm@vaxc.hofstra.edu
To: Elasmo-L@umassd.edu

Dear Elasmo-folks:

FYI, here's the justification for use of Galeorhinus zyopterus in the 1991 AFS list:

"L.J.V. Compagno (1984)...synonymized the soupfin shark, G. zyopterus, with the tope, G. galeus (LINNAEUS, 1758), but did not provide data to support this synonymy. Because both taxa are important commercially and recreationally, we regard this change as premature. If this change proves to be correct, we would urge adoption of the name tope for the combined entity." (page 72).

John

Subject: More on Galeorhinus species
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 17:11:07 -0200
From: Leonard
To: Elasmo-L@umassd.edu

Dear Elasmo-L

John Morrissey contributed the additional information on the AFS's reasons for retaining Galeorhinus zyopterus for the West Coast (of North America) soupfin. I will order my copy of the 1991 AFS list next week.

The data for the synonymy was supplied by Compagno (1988). I don't think that the AFS common name of the West Coast Galeorhinus should be so closely linked to its scientific name that the former has to change if the latter changes. As a native San Franciscan with considerable familiarity with the California soupfin, I'd rather doubt that everyone on the West Coast will suddenly stop using soupfin and would refer to it as tope if its AFS scientific name shifted to G. galeus, no more than they did when the FAO shark catalog came out with the FAO vernacular name of tope for G. galeus. Also, this certainly didn't happen in Australia (See Last & Stevens, 1994), where the school shark stayed as such even though its scientific name changed from G. australis (or Notogaleus rhinophanes in Whitley's usage) to G. galeus. Well-used regional or national names for wide-ranging species should be conserved, even though one may have to shift mental gears when one visits different countries and regions and considers the same species.

As for the systematic merits of synonymizing G. zyopterus with G. galeus, check out the arguments, and, to paraphrase a '60s alternative newsie on KSAN, 'if you don't like the systematics, go out and make some of your own'! Detailed investigation of the population biology and systematics of soupfins, including population genetics, is recommended here. Regional subspecies are a possibility (Galeorhinus galeus zyopterus*!!!).

Leonard Compagno

Subject: Galeorhinus
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 07:51:33 +1000 (EST)
From: John.Stevens@ml.csiro.au (John Stevens)
To: elasmo-l@umassd.edu

In an allozyme and mtDNA study of Galeorhinus we compared specimens from Australia, New Zealand, UK, South Africa and Argentina (we were unable to get material from California). Results showed that these populations represented a single species. Ward, R.D., and Gardner, M.G. 1997. Stock structure and species identification of school and gummy sharks in Australasian waters. Fisheries Research and Development Corporation, Final Report, Project 93/64.92pp.

John

Subject: Re: More on Galeorhinus species
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 1997 11:44:30 -0200
From: "Leonard"
To: Jim Bourdon

Dear Jim

. . . Note also John Stevens' remarks about the genetic/biochemical studies essentially backing up the morphological and meristic work I did, except that the Eastern North Pacific soupfin wasn't included in the survey because material wasn't available (which is surprising). West Coast soupfin apparently averaged slightly larger in size and have higher vertebral counts than South African soupfin, vaalhaai or sopvinhaai, but these differences are in line with those seen in allopatric populations of various carcharhinid and sphyrnid sharks.

It wouldn't surprise me that the upper Miocene soupfin of the basal Yorktown Formation (or earlier formations reworked into Yorktown) was slightly different than the modern G. galeus, but what is surprising is the current lack of soupfin in the Western North Atlantic.

Sincerely yours, Leonard Compagno