What gives sharks their extraordinary speed, agility and endurance? It’s not just their muscles or powerful tails – it’s the hidden architecture inside their spines. Using high-resolution micro-CT imaging, researchers found that great white, shortfin mako and porbeagle sharks have rigid, mineral-rich spines built for speed, while sand tiger sharks evolved more flexible vertebrae for maneuverability. Common thresher sharks have reinforced spinal structures for powerful tail strikes, and basking sharks possess lightly mineralized spines adapted for slow, energy-efficient cruising.

New research reveals the unusual shape, size and pattern of the dermal denticles that cover basking sharks – thought to be unique to this species. Researchers propose that the shape and arrangement of the skin’s scales protects the skin while also allowing for the stretchiness required to open and close their colossal mouths during ram filter feeding.

Gram, Denmark — An associated set of gigantic vertebrae belonging to the iconic extinct Megalodon or megatooth shark that had been missing in action since the 1980s was discovered, providing new information about the shark’s lifestyle. Two Museum of Southern Jutland staff, Mette Elstrup and Trine Sørensen, and a researcher at Aarhus University, Henrik Lauridsen, teamed up with a scientist in the United States and another in Australia and took a renewed look at a once-lost vertebral specimen of Otodus megalodon, the fossil shark that lived nearly worldwide about 15 to 3.6 million years ago.  The new study appears in the international journal Palaeontologia Electronica.