What is the scientific name for a nurse shark?

Answer 1

The scientific name for a nurse shark is Ginglymostoma cirratum.

However, the scientific name for the grey nurse shark is Carcharias taurus.

While Carcharias taurus is a large, common shark throughout the world, Ginglymostoma cirratum differ from most sharks because they live at the ocean floor and have an atypical appearance.

This example helps to explain why scientific naming exists: people in different places come up with different names for the same species. People in Australis call Carcharias taurus a grey nurse shark while people in the United States or the United Kingdom call the same shark a sand tiger shark. For scientists to avoid this sort of confusion, they classify and name species in Latin so that a scientist in one part of the world can easily tell if an animal is the same animal that another scientist somewhere else has observed.

For more information on nurse sharks and grey nurse sharks, see the page links, further down this page, listed under Related Links.

Answer 2

The scientific name for a nurse shark is Ginglymostoma cirratum.

Answer 3

chlamydoselachus anguineus