Samantha Leigh/California State University, Dominguez Hills This video shows the soft tissue of a Pacific spiny dogfish spiral intestine, rotated and viewed from different angles. This allows researchers to see the complexities of a shark intestine without having to dissect or disturb it.
SHARKS 3D PITCHURES SERIES
The machine works like a standard CT scanner used in hospitals: A series of X-ray images is taken from different angles, then combined using computer processing to create three-dimensional images.
The researchers primarily used a computerized tomography (CT) scanner at the UW’s Friday Harbor Laboratories to create 3D images of shark intestines, which came from specimens preserved at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. The research team from California State University, Dominguez Hills, the University of Washington and University of California, Irvine, published its findings July 21 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The beginning of the intestine is on the left, and the end is on the right. “We developed a new method to digitally scan these tissues and now can look at the soft tissues in such great detail without having to slice into them.”Ī CT scan image of the spiral intestine of a Pacific spiny dogfish shark (Squalus suckleyi).
“It’s high time that some modern technology was used to look at these really amazing spiral intestines of sharks,” said lead author Samantha Leigh, assistant professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Now, researchers have produced a series of high-resolution, 3D scans of intestines from nearly three dozen shark species that will advance the understanding of how sharks eat and digest their food. Even less is known about how they digest their food, and the role they play in the larger ocean ecosystem.įor more than a century, researchers have relied on flat sketches of sharks’ digestive systems to discern how they function - and how what they eat and excrete impacts other species in the ocean. Elizabeth Roberts/Wikimedia CommonsĬontrary to what popular media portrays, we actually don’t know much about what sharks eat. These sharks have a spiral-shaped intestine that allows them to digest food more slowly and with less energy. Three smooth dogfish sharks (Mustelus canis).
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