 They dubbed the new species in honor of noted shark biologist Perry W. Gilbert, and published their findings in a 1985 "Copeia" paper.The type specimen is a long female caught in the Caribbean Sea off the coast of Colombia.This species is grouped with the velvet belly lantern shark ("E. spinax"), Caribbean lanternshark ("E. hillianus"), fringefin lanternshark ("E. schultzi"), brown lanternshark ("E. unicolor"), broadbanded lanternshark ("E. gracilispinis"), and combtooth lanternshark ("E. decacuspidatus") in having irregularly arranged, needle-shaped dermal denticles.