Students Dive Into Science With Shark Dissection

  Students Dive Into Science With Shark Dissection 

 Scalpels in hand and curiosity leading the way, students in Mrs. Bond's and Mr. Longley's Zoology classes explored the inner workings of a shark during a recent classroom dissection. The interactive lab allowed students to connect textbook concepts to real-world biology while building critical thinking and teamwork skills. 

Mrs. Bond tells us, "We are in our first vertebrate unit and evolutionary speaking, fish are our first group. We used a dogfish shark as our representative animal. Sharks have some interesting physiology that set them apart from their jawless and bony cousins. During the dissection, we go through all of the external features, which includes sexing the shark (determining if it’s male or female). We only had two males (in Bonds classes). If there was a female, it was most likely pregnant. Dogfish are ovoviviparous which means they have embryos on the inside in “eggs” then finish developing within the mother then are born live. All of the dogfish pups we delivered had a yolk sac attached for nourishment. The other few key features were the external “ampullae of Lorenzini” which are electroreceptors. It is a sense we do not have! We were all able to see the internal “spiral intestine” which is a cool adaptation. Instead of super long, thin intestines like we have, sharks have a short intestine with lots of “ribbon like” spiral tissue to increase the surface area for absorption."

Mr. Longley adds, "This semester we’re studying vertebrates and sharks provide an amazing starting point to understand where our skeletons come from. We’re learning how they stay buoyant, breathe, behave, and how they impact our oceans. The dissection offers students a chance to really get up close and personal with something that most people would be too afraid to go see in person."

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