#thresher sharks

[antiqueanimals]

Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), Common thresher (Alopias vulpinus), Shortfin mako (Isurus oxyrinchus), Porbeagle (Lamna nasus), Basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus)

Fishes of the World. Written by Hans Hvass. Illustrated by Wilhelm Eigener. Originally published in 1964.

Internet Archive

[olive-ridley]

I keep seeing these cute “guess the shark species” slideshows l on tiktok, but they always show a pelagic thresher shark and just call it a “thresher shark,” so I realized not a lot of people might know there are three species of thresher shark. I’m going to introduce you to all of them and give you some certified marine biologist (tm) tips and tricks to notice species-specific features to look for once you see the long tail that indicates it’s in Alopiidae (since even google images messes it up sometimes).

This is a pelagic thresher shark (Alopias pelagicus). It is the smallest of the three species, and usually the one everyone thinks of. Some of the most distinguishing features to me are the slender body shape, a smooth head with no noticeable ridge, and eyes that are still somewhat large, but not noticeably so. But the most important distinguisher to me is its coloration, the white on the shark’s ventral side forms a border with the grey on it’s dorsal side, and this border goes *under* the pectoral fins, not *over*. They can be found to at least 150 m.

The common thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) is the one that’s the most annoying to find on google images, because half the images are of the pelagic thresher. It is the largest species of thresher shark. As you can clearly see, these guys are a bit chunkier and also don’t have a noticeably large eye, and they have a smooth head that lacks a noticeable ridge. But the most important distinguisher for these guys is also related to their coloring. As you can kind of see in this photo, the border between the white of the ventral side and grey of the dorsal side goes well above the pectoral fin, so they have a spot of white that goes *above* their fin. This is the easiest way to distinguish them from pelagic thresher sharks, since you might see them within the same size range, so going off of body shape and size alone isn’t the most reliable.

And lastly, we have the bigeye thresher shark (Alopias superciliosus), so hopefully now it’s clear why I was harping on the eyes so much for the last two. Their gigantic uwu eyes are definitely a distinguishing feature, but the most prominent feature you want to look for during identification is the large ridge between the top of their head and their body. It’s super noticeable in person as well, and is not a feature shared by the other two sharks. These are the most easily distinguishable from the other two, and can be found to a depth of up to 723 m.

All thresher sharks are ovoviparous, so they give live birth! And they’re all cutie patooties who deserve to be appreciated.

[sharks-are-friends-not-foes]

🎶On the third day of Sharkmas my true love gave to me🎶

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[taxonomytournament]

Taxonomy Tournament: Cartilaginous Fish

Lamniformes. This order is also known as the mackerel sharks. Members include the Great White Shark, Thresher shark, megamouth shark, Mako shark, and Goblin shark.

Carcharhiniformes. This is the shark order with the most species, at 270. Members include the Hammerhead shark, tiger shark, catshark and bull shark

[ardatli]

I have a VERY cool, too-smart-for-his-own-good, 12-year-old kid, who is very into thresher sharks. They are his favourite shark, which are themselves his favourite marine animal. (He drew my icon, Eagle Shark, when he was 10. It Is Awesome.) Marine biology is his dream career, particularly if it can involve sharks. And lasers, apparently.

I want to do something cool for him - for Hanukkah, or his birthday, or his bar mitzvah next year, idk - that involves thresher sharks.

It can't realistically involve travel. Flying somewhere outside of Nova Scotia / Montreal / Ottawa / Toronto to swim with thresher sharks is not in the budget. (Can you even swim with thresher sharks? They're small, but mighty.) I am a poor adjunct academic, and his dad draws cartoons.

What I would like to do is crowdsource a running list of Cool Shit Involving Thresher Sharks. Lego kits, stuffies, movies we can buy, documentaries to watch... researchers' youtube channels? Amazing science books written for a popular audience?

Something's going to be the right thing. I just don't know what that is yet. If you stumble on something, add it to a reblog.

Thresher sharks. Hit me.

[bitchybylershipper]

special interests are so fun because like a little bit ago i was almost asleep and now ive been scrolling through pictures of thresher sharks and trying not to giggle for like 30 minutes like why do u look so scared bro whats goin on

[stonedoutoflove]

I'm making a thresher shark plushie and I am so excited to sew her together!!!!!!

[daily-fun-animal-facts]

Hello, fellow animal lover!! Got anything on thresher sharks orrrr nurse sharks. They are two of my favorite sharks!

Hello!! yes!! here you go my friend!!

The Thresher Shark is also known as the Alopias Vulpinus or Fox Shark. Its name comes from the sharks unusually large tail (caudal fin), which is in most cases, as long as the shark itself.

These are very athletic sharks. They are known for slaying their prey with their huge tails and are famous for special jumping techniques and behavior called “breaching” where they jump out of the water and into the air.

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Nurse Sharks spend their lives around coral reefs and coastal shelves, and most of their hunting takes place right on the ocean floor, where these slow-moving carnivores look for prey in or near the sand. Instead of swimming, they sometimes use their pectoral fins to “walk” across the bottom.

Shark snuggle parties are a thing. By day, the nocturnal nurse shark becomes inactive; for hours on end, it just lies around and pumps water over its gills. Crevices, ledges, and piles of boulders are popular downtime locations for this species. Although the sharks don't socialize on hunting trips, they often recline en masse. Nurse sharks are known to rest communally, with groups of two to 40 individuals piling up on top of each other.

Hope these are satisfactory, I'm a bit under the weather so admittedly they are a bit half assed lol

[thesharktist]

MEET THE ARTIST :))

God, I haven't done this in years!! Look, it's me :) hahahehdbsmsl, guess my brand of autism

Anyway! Hi, yes, this is me <3 hi, I'm Emelia!!!! Please be my friend, mutuals, I want to talk yo more people in my interests. Use my ask button thing!!! If you have a doodle request, there's a 90% I'll get it done in the next 2 days

[antiqueanimals]

Elements of Zoölogy: A Text-book. Written by Sanborn Tenney. 1875.

Internet Archive

[softpadawan]

Thresher sharks would make great shark mers tho! That long tail is iconic.

They would! That tail is off the rail. Check out this beauty:

I was originally going to have Ahsoka be a thresher, but the white tip reef shark was a better fit, in my opinion

Now, if Ezra were a shark, I think he’d make a great thresher

✅ Small and cute (and comes in shades of purple)

✅ Genus name means "fox" in Greek, perfect for a little thief

✅ Works alone

✅ Superb leaper

✅ Uses a really cool stun method

✅ Big eyes

✅ Soft round nose

✅ Dropping comical one-liners all the time

I think we have a winner. Ezra Thresher!

[sharks-are-friends-not-foes]

🎶On the seventh day of Sharkmas my true love gave to me🎶

[cupidtxt]

thresher sharks

[kandibeetle]

this is my favorite gif ever. look at my shark folks