User blog comment:Mckrongs/Monster Hunter 4 for the Nintendo 3DS/@comment-21371438-20130920092409/@comment-765166-20130921224444

Guys, if you pay attention to what little story MH4 has, you'll know that elder characters in the game know about Shagaru Magara's existence and had made markings that resemble the monster in flight (hence the symbol at the limited edition 3DS). So if they know about Shagaru being an Elder Dragon, it only means that they did not know about its younger form to actually exist. So the revelation of Goa is so new that at the time of MH4's story they have not classified him yet. Let's say that in future installments I expect Goa to be reclassified as an Elder Dragon.