 Therefore, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed it as data deficient overall and as vulnerable in Brazil.Italian naturalist Camillo Ranzani published the first scientific description of the smalltail shark in an 1839 volume of "Novi Commentarii Academiae Scientiarum Instituti Bononiensis".He named the new shark "Carcharias porosus" from the Greek "porus" ("pore"), referring to the prominent pores behind its eyes.