Carcharhinidae

Elasmobranch, Its Implications For Global, Parasitology, Diversity And, Naylor, G. J. P., Sc, Caira, J. N., Ct, Jensen, K., Ks, Rosana, K. A. M., Fl, White, W. T., Csiro, Tas, Last, P. R., Csiro & Tas, 2012, A Dna Sequence-Based Approach To The Identification Of Shark And Ray Species And Its Implications For Global Elasmobranch Diversity And Parasitology, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2012 (367), pp. 1-262 : 33-34

Carcharhinidae (requiem sharks), continued

Galeocerdo cuvier (tiger shark) complex ( fig. 20)

Our 29 specimens of this species represent much of the longitudinal distribution of this species, having come from the western North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico (18 specimens), as well as the Gulf of California (1 specimen), Hawaii (1 specimen), Borneo (1 specimen), the Timor Sea off the coast of northern Australia (7 specimens), and the Red Sea (1 specimen). The specimen from the Gulf of California was deposited in the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection (GN5271 5 TCWC 7574.01). The analysis yielded two clusters of tiger sharks. One of these consisted of specimens from the Atlantic localities, and the second consisted of the specimens from Australia, Hawaii, Borneo, Gulf of California, and Red Sea (i.e., the Pacific and Indian Ocean localities). The range in pairwise differences among all 29 tiger shark specimens was 0–17; the average was 6.2. The range in pairwise differences among specimens in the Atlantic cluster was 0–5 (with an average of 1.1), and among specimens in the Pacific and Indian Ocean cluster was 0–7 (with an average of 2.9). The average of the pairwise differences between the two clusters was 11.1. Given that the type locality of G. cuvier is northwestern Australia, we have given the 11 specimens comprising this cluster the designation G. cuvier and the 18 specimens in the second cluster the designation G. cf. cuvier .

Both haplotype maps for this genus ( figs. 88A and B) support the above conclusions. There is no haplotype overlap among specimens of the two potential species of tiger sharks, and the haplotype map colored by geography clearly shows that the two species are allopatrically distributed. The notion that multiple species may exist within this genus needs to be further explored. If taxonomic investigation reveals that Atlantic populations are not conspecific with G. cuvier , G. arcticus (Faber, 1829) , described from Iceland and Norway, might need to be resurrected.