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The tail of a shark consists of the caudal peduncle and the caudal fin, which provide the main source of thrust for the shark. Most sharks have heterocercal caudal fins, meaning that the backbone extends into the (usually longer) upper lobe. The shape of the caudal fin reflects the shark's lifestyle, and can be broadly divided into five categories:
The adipose fin is a soft, fleshy fin found on the back behind the dorsal fin and just forward of the caudal fin. It is absent in many fish families, but found in nine of the 31 euteleostean orders ( Percopsiformes , Myctophiformes , Aulopiformes , Stomiiformes , Salmoniformes , Osmeriformes , Characiformes , Siluriformes and Argentiniformes ...
Caudal/Tail fins: Also called the tail fins, caudal fins are attached to the end of the caudal peduncle and used for propulsion. The caudal peduncle is the narrow part of the fish's body. The hypural joint is the joint between the caudal fin and the last of the vertebrae. The hypural is often fan-shaped.
The caudal fin has a strong lateral keel and a crescent shape. Other common names include bone shark, elephant shark, sailfish, and sunfish. In Orkney, it is called hoe-mother (contracted homer), meaning "the mother of the piked dogfish". [5] The basking shark is a cosmopolitan migratory species found in
[3] [5] The caudal bar is a dark bar found on the caudal fin of some species, including some sharks. Like other sharks in the mitsukurii group, the Philippines spurdog has a caudal bar which is dark and almost upright, however the caudal bar extends further in S. montalbani than S. mitsukurii, allowing visual differentiation of the species. [3]
The anal fin is low and positioned just in front of the caudal fin. The caudal fin has only an upper lobe, which contains a prominent ventral notch near the tip and is angled almost horizontally relative to the body. Adult epaulette sharks are beige to brownish above with many widely spaced brown spots and subtle darker bands.
Named for their exceptionally long, thresher-like heterocercal tail or caudal fins (which can be as long as the total body length), thresher sharks are active predators; the tail is used as a weapon to stun prey. [12] [13] The thresher shark has a short head and a cone-shaped nose.
Dogfish sharks have two dorsal fins, each with smooth spines, but no anal fin. Their skin is generally rough to the touch. [18] These sharks are characterized by teeth in upper and lower jaws similar in size; caudal peduncle with lateral keels; upper precaudal pit usually present; and a caudal fin without a subterminal notch