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Description
The fourth in a series of nine shark pictures done for Christmas cards.

Thresher sharks (family Alopiidae) are a family of lamniform sharks, and are large, active predators like their relatives in the lamnid family. They are instantly recognisable by the enormous upper lobe of the caudal fin, which may be roughly equal in length to the rest of the shark. Threshers also have thick tail stocks to support this huge, scythe-like fin, tiny second dorsal and anal fins, long pectorals, short snouts, and large eyes.

There are three species in one genus; the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) has - sure enough - enormous eyes, and deep horizontal grooves extending from above the eyes to above the gills. It matures at about 3 to 3.5 m in length. The pelagic thresher (A. pelagicus) is the smallest of the three, maturing at around 2.5 - 3 m, and the head has a notably arched profile compared with the common thresher (A. vulpinus).

The common thresher is the subject of my drawing, and is the largest thresher with males maturing at about 3 m and females at about 3.7 to 4 m. The maximum length recorded is probably somewhere between 5.5 and 6.1 m, and while this is huge, it is important to remember how much of a thresher's length is tail when making comparisons with other types of shark. For instance, if we imagine the upper caudal lobe was normally proportioned, a 4 m thresher would be more like 2.5 m in length. The common thresher is blue-grey to dark grey above with a white underside that extends in a strip above the pectoral fins - in both the bigeye and pelagic thresher, there is apparently no white above the pectoral fins.

The common thresher occurs almost worldwide in cold-temperate to tropical seas, and feeds primarily on small fish which it herds and stuns with its huge tail. Apparently this behaviour is sometimes cooperative.

Based on a painting by Ian Coleman, who has been discussed in previous submission descriptions. I was quite pleased with this one, especially the lines. 3H and B pencils.

Description
The fourth in a series of nine shark pictures done for Christmas cards.

Thresher sharks (family Alopiidae) are a family of lamniform sharks, and are large, active predators like their relatives in the lamnid family. They are instantly recognisable by the enormous upper lobe of the caudal fin, which may be roughly equal in length to the rest of the shark. Threshers also have thick tail stocks to support this huge, scythe-like fin, tiny second dorsal and anal fins, long pectorals, short snouts, and large eyes.

There are three species in one genus; the bigeye thresher (Alopias superciliosus) has - sure enough - enormous eyes, and deep horizontal grooves extending from above the eyes to above the gills. It matures at about 3 to 3.5 m in length. The pelagic thresher (A. pelagicus) is the smallest of the three, maturing at around 2.5 - 3 m, and the head has a notably arched profile compared with the common thresher (A. vulpinus).

The common thresher is the subject of my drawing, and is the largest thresher with males maturing at about 3 m and females at about 3.7 to 4 m. The maximum length recorded is probably somewhere between 5.5 and 6.1 m, and while this is huge, it is important to remember how much of a thresher's length is tail when making comparisons with other types of shark. For instance, if we imagine the upper caudal lobe was normally proportioned, a 4 m thresher would be more like 2.5 m in length. The common thresher is blue-grey to dark grey above with a white underside that extends in a strip above the pectoral fins - in both the bigeye and pelagic thresher, there is apparently no white above the pectoral fins.

The common thresher occurs almost worldwide in cold-temperate to tropical seas, and feeds primarily on small fish which it herds and stuns with its huge tail. Apparently this behaviour is sometimes cooperative.

Based on a painting by Ian Coleman, who has been discussed in previous submission descriptions. I was quite pleased with this one, especially the lines. 3H and B pencils.