PORTER, Marianne*; KASBATI, Sabreena; Univ. of California, Irvine: Life without spiracles: the contribution of spiracles to shark ventilation

Spiracles are vestigial first gills found in elasmobranch fishes including all batoids and many shark species. Historically, spiracles are considered respiratory organs by which animals sitting on the ocean floor can bring oxygenated water into the body, though the mouth is ventrally located against a substrate. Data have shown that animals at rest do use their spiracles as ventilatory organs. Our goal was to examine the role and contribution of spiracles as ventilatory organs in Squalus acanthias