In your basic bony fish skeleton, it’s easy to see the bones that are homologous to ribs in their other bony vertebrate brethren.
I’ve seen a few shark skeletons, and haven’t seen anything looking like ribs. And they’ve managed quite fine without them, although they don’t have nearly the legacy of bony fishes (e.g., amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, Pauly Shore).
The GQs:
Do sharks have ribs? Do the “ribs” (sorry, I don’t know what they’re called) of bony fishes serve some specific purpose (such as organ support)? If so, what structures does a shark have to accomplish the same purpose?
(And I’m using “shark” as a synechdoche for “elasmobranchs.”)
What kind of shark is that? Where is his teeth? And his Jaw looks more like a whale than a shark.
It was my understanding that sharks and other fish in the Class Chondrichthyes have skeletons made entirely of cartilage. Only a shark’s jaw and teeth are bone.
So while he may have ribs, they are made of cartilage. So what’s up with that whale pic, Otto. It seems to come from a reliable source, but how could it possibly be the boney skeleton of a shark??
If you’re interested in sharks, and in shark attack statistics and stuff like that, you should check out the Florida Museum of Natural History. They have heaps of good information, some excellent images, and the International Shark Attack File has data about shark attacks all around the world going back hundreds of years. It’s in my bookmarks, and is a really excellent site.