Jaguar catshark
The jaguar catshark (Bythaelurus giddingsi), also known as the Galápagos catshark, is a species of catshark from the Galápagos Islands. The species was first described in 2012. This catshark is about a foot long when mature, and it is colored blackish-brown with an asymmetrical pattern of light spots. Taxonomy The species was first discovered in 1995 on an expedition to the Galápagos Islands led by John McCosker from the California Academy of Sciences. The purpose of the expedition was to film a documentary about the Galápagos Islands for the Discovery Channel, which aired in 1996. Douglas Long was the first to notice the new shark species while he was processing the fish samples that were collected during the expedition. Though not yet formally described, the name Galápagos catshark was used in non-scientific shark literature for several years prior to the published description. The species was formally described as a new species in an article by McCosker, Long and Carole Baldwin which was published in Zootaxa in March 2012. As the authors did not propose a common name in their original publication, and also because there are several species of catshark from the Galápagos Islands, the name jaguar catshark was subsequently