A shark’s spine looks simple from the outside. Inside, however, it carries a carefully arranged network of mineral plates and branches. That hidden structure helps determine whether a shark races through open water, turns sharply, or swings an oversized tail at prey. The team studied great white, shortfin mako, porbeagle, common thresher, sand tiger and basking sharks. Each species uses its body differently while swimming. The analysis found no single vertebral design shared across every shark. Instead, each spine matched the forces created by its swimming style. “By examining species with varied swimming strategies, we found that the shark spine is not a one-size-fits-all design,” said Jamie Knaub. Phylogenetic tree of lamniform sharks. (CREDIT: Journal of Anatomy) “Instead, its internal architecture reflects the unique demands of each species’ movement.” Knaub is the study’s first author and a research specialist at FAU Laboratory Schools. She is also a doctoral candidate in FAU’s Department of Biology. Looking Beneath a Cartilage Skeleton Sharks have relied on cartilage-based skeletons for more than 400 million years. Their spines must withstand …