Slender smooth-hound journal "Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand". Garrick named the species "Triakis attenuata", in reference to its extremely slender ("attenuate") body. In 1973, Leonard Compagno proposed a separate genus for the slender smooth-hound: "Gollum", after the character in J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings", "to whom this shark bears some resemblance in form and habits." He placed "Gollum" with the finback catsharks (Proscylliidae), but also noted its many anatomical similarities to the false catshark ("Pseudotriakis microdon"). At the time, Compagno chose to maintain "Pseudotriakis" as the sole member of the family Pseudotriakidae because of its
Slender smooth-hound pups, one per uterus. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed the slender smooth-hound as Least Concern; it is taken as fishery bycatch but not in great numbers, and furthermore large portions of its range see minimal fishing activity. The first known specimen of the slender smooth-hound was a long adult male collected by the trawler "Maimai" in December 1953, at a depth of off Cape Palliser on New Zealand's North Island. It was preserved by the crew as a curiosity and given to ichthyologist Jack Garrick, who described it in a 1954 issue of the scientific