The German biologists Johannes Müller and Jakob Henle created the genus Urolophus in 1837; in their subsequent 1838–41 Systematische Beschreibung der Plagiostomen, the pair created the genus Trygonoptera and also made the first reference to the urolophids as a group.
Two German biologists, Johannes Müller and Jakob Henle, introduced the Urolophus genus in 1837. In their comprehensive work on Plagiostomen from 1838 to 1841, they also created the Trygonoptera genus and first referred to the urolophids as a distinct group.