 The spinner shark was originally described as "Carcharias (Aprion) brevipinna" by Johannes Peter Müller and Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle in their 1839 "Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen", based on the mounted skin of a 79-cm-long specimen collected off Java.This species was subsequently moved to the genera "Aprion", "Squalus", and "Aprionodon" before being placed within the genus "Carcharhinus".The tooth shape and coloration of this species varies significantly with age and between geographical regions, which caused much taxonomic confusion.