A Guide for the Dissection of the Dogfish (Squalus Acanthias)

by Lawrence Edmonds Griffin

The concave faces of the vertebrae consist of much firmer cartilage than the remaining portions, sometimes even calcified. Make a transverse section through the middle of a centrum and observe the relations of the parts.

On each side of the centrum, near the ventral edge, is a plate-like projection, the transverse process. Attached to the extremity of this is a slender cartilaginous rib.

Each neural arch is made up of two distinguishable sets of plates. The first consists of a pair of broad neural plates extending upward from each side of the centrum and uniting with each other dorsally. Between the neural plates of two successive vertebrae is a pair (one on each side) of intercalary plates which also unite over the neural canal. The intercalary plates are over the joint between the centra. Neural and intercalary plates together make the lateral and dorsal walls of the neural canal. The relations of these plates can sometimes be seen best when the neural arch is cleaned, then cut away from the centrum, and looked through toward the light.

In the lower part of each neural plate is a small foramen which allows the passage of the ventral root of the spinal nerve. A foramen for the dorsal root is found at about the middle of the intercalary plate.

Clean and remove some of the caudal vertebrae from the region just back of the cloaca. In general they have nearly the same structure and relations as the thoracic vertebrae, but have no transverse processes and the plates of the neural arches are not so distinct. There is also added a ventral arch similar in form to the neural arch. This is the haemal arch, in which lie the caudal aorta and vein. Its roof is the surface of the centrum, the sides are formed by pairs of plates which correspond in number to the centra, and unite with each other ventrally. Between the successive plates are openings for the passage of branches of the artery and vein.

In this region foramina for the roots of the spinal nerves are found only in every other pair of neural and intercalary plates. Toward the tip of the vertebral column the relation of the neural and intercalary plates to the centra becomes very irregular.

In Eugaleus the roof of the neural arch is formed by a row of small, diamond-shaped plates which fit in between the other two sets. As these plates correspond morphologically to the neural spines of higher vertebrates, they may receive that name here. It is probable that the dorsal portion of the arch in Squalus is composed of similar neural spine elements which have become fused with the neural and intercalary plates of each side.

Skull. The skull is entirely cartilaginous, and comprises three principal divisions: (1) the cranium, an undivided mass of cartilage lodging the brain and the organs of smell, sight, and hearing; (2) the jaws; (3) the visceral arches, or skeletons of the gill arches.

(1) The cranium. A blunt prolongation of the anterior extremity of the cranium forms the rostrum, which supports the soft tissues of the snout. At each side of the base of the rostrum the cranium widens abruptly. On the anterior face of the widened portion and below the posterior angles of the rostrum is a pair of protruding olfactory capsules, in which the olfactory sacs are enclosed. An oval aperture in the posterior wall of each capsule opens into the braincase and permits the passage of the olfactory nerve through the cranium.

Back of the olfactory capsules are large lateral cavities, the orbits. The dorsal edge of the orbit makes an overhanging ledge, known as the supra-orbital crest. The projecting anterior and posterior angles of the orbit are distinguished as the prae- and postorbital processes.