Undescribed species

An undescribed species may be referred to with the genus name, followed by "sp.", but this abbreviation is also used to label specimens or images that are too incomplete to be identified at the species level. In some cases, there is more than one undescribed species in a genus. In this case, these are often referred to by a number or letter. In the shark genus Pristiophorus, for example, there were, for some time, four undescribed species, informally named Pristiophorus sp. A, B, C and D. (In 2008, sp. A was described as Pristiophorus peroniensis and sp. B as P. delicatus.) When a formal description for species C or D is published, its temporary name will be replaced with a proper binomial name.