In 1906, the Carnegie Museum purchased an extensive collection of fishes assembled from the markets of Takao (Kaohsiung), Taiwan by Hans Sauter.

American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan and Robert Earl Richardson described several new species from the collection in a 1909 issue of Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum, including a catshark of the genus Pristiurus that they named in Sauter's honor.

[2][3] A 2005 phylogenetic study, based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA, found that this species, G. eastmani, and G. gracilis form a clade apart from G. melastomus and G.

The rather long snout is pointed, with large nostrils divided by triangular flaps of skin on their anterior margins.

The large, horizontally oval eyes bear rudimentary nictitating membranes (protective third eyelids) and lack prominent ridges underneath.

The body is covered by small, slightly overlapping dermal denticles, which are leaf-shaped with a median ridge and three marginal teeth.

This species is a uniform ochre above and white below, with distinctive dark brown tips on the dorsal and caudal fins; the interior of the mouth is light gray.

[8] In Taiwanese waters, blacktip sawtail catsharks of most sizes are frequently caught incidentally in bottom trawls operated by commercial shrimp fisheries.