The Pacific angelshark was first scientifically described in 1859 by William Orville Ayres, the first Curator of Ichthyology at the California Academy of Sciences [REF].
The Chilean angelshark (Squatina armata) of the southeastern Pacific was synonymized with this species by Kato, Springer and Wagner in 1967, but was later tentatively recognized as a separate species again by Leonard Compagno [REF].