Alopias
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The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.
Alopias
(thresher sharks), the only genus of the family Alopidae of the suborder Selachoidei. Body length, up to 6 m; weight, up to 450 kg. The upper lobe of the tail is very long. There are four species, distributed in the warm waters of all oceans, usually far from shore. The thresher (Alopias vulpinus), which is found primarily in subtropical regions, migrates to moderately warm seas in the summer. The sharks are viviparous, bearing two to four young, which measure up to 1.5 m long. They feed on shoals of fish and on squids, which they stun with blows of the tail. Thresher sharks are not dangerous to man, and their commercial value is slight.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.