 The species was described by Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre in 1778.He classified it in the genus "Squalus", with the full scientific name of "Squalus maculatus".Bonnaterre redescribed the species in 1788 in "Orectolobus", its current genus, making its full scientific name "Orectolobus maculatus", with "Squalus maculatus" now a synonym of it.