 Other names for this species include fish shark, grey dog shark, little blue shark, Longmans dogshark, milk dog shark, sharp-nosed (milk) shark, Walbeehm's sharp-nosed shark, and white-eye shark.A 1992 phylogenetic analysis by Gavin Naylor, based on allozymes, found that the milk shark is the most basal of the four "Rhizoprionodon" species examined.The extinct "R. fischeuri", known from Middle Miocene (16–12 Ma) deposits in southern France and Portugal, may be the same as "R. acutus".