Author: (Linnaeus, 1758)
Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758)
Status in World Register of Marine Species:
Accepted name: Prionace glauca (Linnaeus, 1758) (updated 2009-06-25)
Diagnosis: body slender. Snout very long, conical. Teeth serrate, uppers oblique, lowers erect, both with broad cusps. Gill-slits short, papillose gillrakers present on gill arches. Pectoral fins long (greater than head length), slender and falcate; first dorsal fin low, its apex rounded, midpoint of its base closer to origin of pelvic fins than to insertion of pectoral fins; inter-dorsal ridge absent. Colour: bright blue above, white below. Size: to 383 cm TL, mostly less than 300 cm TL.
Habitat: open oceanic waters outside continental shelf, but occurring also in coastal waters; epipelagic, often seen swimming slowly at surface. Food: fishes and squids. Reproduction: viviparous, litters large, up to 80 young, usually less. Pups born at 35-45 cm TL; gestation period 9-12 months.
Distribution: widespread northward to Norway and throughout the Mediterranean. Elsewhere, cosmopolitan in tropical to cool-temperate waters.
Complementary iconography. Bonaparte, 1840, fasc. 27, fig. | Day, 1882, pl. 152 | Smitt, 1895, fig. 326, pl. 50 (fig. 3) | Jordan and Evermann, 1900, pl. 4 (fig. 16) | Garman, 1913, pl. 3 (fig. 1-3) | Lozano Rey, 1928, fig. 98-99, pl. 3 (fig. 1) | Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948, fig. 47-48 | Tortonese, 1956, fig. 81-82.
Eggs, larvae and young stages. Lo Bianco, 1909: 666 | Ranzi, 1932: 262;1934: 398 | Bigelow and Schroeder, 1948: 286 | Tortonese, 1956: 154 | Capapé, 1974a: 333.