Welcome to shark week
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Shark Dissection Prelab: What’s the scientific name for the spiny dogfish? Squalus acanthias
What family do you think it is in? Squalidae “Squalus” is Latin for “a kind of sea fish.” Isn’t that imaginative!?!
1. What’s the overall body shape? Torpedo-shaped Fusiform: tapered at both ends, reduces drag Adapted for fast swimming
2. What’s with the coloration? Counter-shading: double camouflage
3. What are the three body divisions? Head: From tip of snout to caudal edge of the gill slits Tail: From the cloaca to the tip of the caudal fin Trunk: …to the ventral opening of the cloaca
4. What’s that horozontal strip and what does it do? Lateral line
It senses pressure differences in the surrounding water (we don’t experience this at all)
5. Note: this is NOT a dogfish shark.
6. Good guess: they are called SPINES
Spines on an adult (yes they are slightly poisonous)
7. How do you describe this tail? Upper lobe of caudal fin longer than lower lobe: Heterocercal Here is an extremely HETEROCERCAL TAIL in the thresher shark
8. Rostrum: the pointed snout at the anterior end.
We’ll pause here for now and get to know our specimens
9. How are shark eyes similar & different to mammal eyes?
Similar: same overall structure and same tissues Similar: same overall structure and same tissues. Different: no eyelid, and differently shaped lens.
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11. Like most sharks, the dogfish has 5 gill slits The exception is the primitive 6 gill shark
12. Pectoral fins provide lift, just like wings on a plane
13. Pelvic fins
14. Shark teeth
Uniform shape, lined up in rows, set in gums rather than in jaw-bone
15. nostrils
16. Ampullae of Lorenzini. These sense organs are sensitive to changes in temperature, water pressure, electrical fields, and salinity.
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18. Draw a pair of denticles: