Author: Budker, 1935
Diagnostic Features:
Snout rounded or slightly pointed in dorsoventral view; gill slits short, 1.1 to 1.3 times the eye length in adults; mouth broadly arched or parabolic and short to moderately long, its length 44 to 64% of its width; lower jaw rounded at symphysis; ends of upper labial furrows reach rear corners of eyes; no toothless space at midlines of jaws; upper anterolateral teeth: with smooth mesial edges and moderately long cusps; lower anterolateral teeth with short, fairly stout, unhooked or slightly hooked cusps and distal and sometimes mesial cusplets; roots and crown feet hardly arched, giving teeth an inverted T shape; lower teeth not protruding or slightly protruding when mouth is closed; tooth row counts 26 to 30/27 to 33, with 1 less to 5 more lower rows than uppers. Dorsal and pelvic fins, and ventral caudal lobe not falcate; second dorsal height 3/5 or more of first dorsal height.
Remarks:
The scope of this genus was expanded by Compagno (1979) beyond that of Bigelow and Schroeder (1948) to include an additional species, Negogaleus tengi Chen, 1963 (with N. longicaudatus Bessednov, 1964 as a synonym). In addition, there two undescribed species of Paragaleus in the western Indian Ocean, one in the "Gulf" and Persian Gulf and from Pakistan down to southern and eastern India and Sri Lanka, and a second from South Africa and possibly off Madagascar. Both differ from named species of Paragaleus in vertebral counts (97 to 108 precaudal and 170 to 186 total centra, versus 72 to 83 precaudal and 131 to 150 centra in P. pectoralis and P. tengi; see also Compagno, 1979). The South African species will be described by Dr Malcolm Smale and the writer, the northwestern Indian Ocean species by the writer.