 The evolutionary relationships of the smalltail shark are uncertain.Based on morphology, Jack Garrick in 1982 and Leonard Compagno in 1988 tentatively placed it in a group defined by the whitecheek shark ("C. dussumieri") and the blackspot shark ("C. sealei").This grouping was equivocally supported by Gavin Naylor's 1992 allozyme-based phylogenetic analysis.