Sentence examples for caudal fluke from inspiring English sources
Thanks to the preserved outline of caudal fluke soft tissues in exceptional specimens that we know the presence of the caudal fluke.
The most visible characteristic of the fish shape is the presence of a crescent-shaped caudal fluke.
Only the ventral lobe of the caudal fluke is supported by the vertebral column (Fig. 5), leaving the dorsal lobe without any hard tissue.
When parvipelvians were first discovered in the first half of the nineteenth century, the crescent-shaped caudal fluke was not properly recognized because of the absence of preserved dorsal lobe.
Approximate outlines of the caudal fluke are now known for at least three parvipelvian genera (Bardet and Fernández 2000; Martill 1995; Fraas 1892), namely Ichthyosaurus (Early Jurassic of England), Stenopterygius (Lower Jurassic of Germany), and Aegirosaurus (Upper Jurassic of Germany).
This is in stark contrast to sharks with epicercal (two-lobed) tail fins, where the relative length of the caudal centra decreases distally to a point a short distance posterior to the greatest depth of the caudal fluke (i.e., at the level of the unsupported ventral lobe).
Two good, deep flexes of the caudal muscles and the flukes propel the whale up and out of the water.
As demonstrated by Lindgren et al. [28], the tails of derived mosasaurs can be subdivided into four discrete subregions (stable proximal tail base, mid-sectional displacement unit, narrow caudal peduncle, and distal propulsive surface or fluke) based on regional variations in vertebral centrum dimensions and discrepancies in vertebral process length and spine orientation (Figure 8A).
