What I have been up to (1)

Sep 17, 2016

What I have been up to (1)No updates for a while I am afraid, but I have not been completely idle. The Scotia is currently cruising the cold grey seas north of Scotland and will hopefully catch the chimaeras needed for this project. In the meantime I have been doing some work on the tooth development in squaliform (dogfish) sharks. 
As an example, here is a scan render of a late stage embryo of a Squalus showing the developing teeth, denticles and skeleton, and a scan of an adult Etmopterus showing the powerful jaws and unique teeth

squalus 68.2.12.22.1edit copy.jpg

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etmopterus1981.3.16.17-19_3.jpg

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Jürgen like this.

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Moya Meredith Smith

These are just eating machines at such and early stage!

Sep 17, 20160

Moya Meredith Smith

These are just eating machines at such and early stage!

Sep 17, 20160

Moya Meredith Smith

These are just eating machines at such and early stage!

Sep 17, 20160

Moya Meredith Smith

These are just eating machines at such and early stage!

Sep 17, 20160

About This Project

Tooth plates in chimaeras and their relationship to teeth in sharks

Birkbeck College, London and Natural History Museum, London

The chimaeras (ghost sharks and spookfish) are a group of often deep sea fishes related to the sharks and rays. Unlike sharks, chimaeras have large, continuously growing tooth plates. These tooth plates have a very different structure to the teeth of sharks, or indeed any other fish. Within the teeth are sheets, rods and 'beads' of hard material that forms the cutting and biting surfaces. We shall be investigating the structure and development of these teeth and relating it to teeth of sharks.