Anatomical studies of the coronary system in elasmobranchs: I. Coronary arteries in lamnoid sharks

• Published in: American Journal of Anatomy
• Main Authors: De Andrés, A. V., Muñoz‐chápuli, R., Sans‐Coma, V., García‐Garrido, L.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1990
• Subjects: Lamna nasus
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/aja.1001870309; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Faja.1001870309; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/aja.1001870309

Abstract A study of the anatomy of coronary arteries has been done in five shark species of the order Lamniformes: Isurus oxyrinchus, Isurus paucus, Lamna nasus, Alopias superciliosus , and Alopias vulpinus . The study, which included 26 specimens, was carried out with the injection‐corrosion technique, obtaining internal casts of the main trunks and coronary arterial branches. The results have shown a high degree of constancy in the coronary patterns in all species and a number of general features common to all of them, except for Alopias vulpinus . In this species, a mesh‐like ventricular pattern of intramyocardial vessels was found instead of subepicardial ventricular coronary branches with a definite patern. It was also shown that there is a wide range of variation among the species regarding the relative importance of the dorsal and ventral coronary trunks. Thus, Isurus oxyrinchus showed a clear predominance of the ventral coronary trunk, whereas in Alopias superciliosus , most of the ventricle was supplied by branches derived from the dorsal coronary trunk.