Do sharks have bones? Here's what's inside a shark
No, sharks don't have a single bone in their bodies. Their whole skeleton is made of cartilage, the same bendy stuff that shapes your ears and the tip of your nose. The only hard parts that aren't cartilage are their teeth. Sounds like a weakness, right? A top ocean predator held together by ear material. It turns out to be one of the main reasons sharks are so good at being sharks. Why cartilage instead of bone? Cartilage is roughly half as dense as bone. A lighter skeleton means less weight to push through the water, and a more flexible one lets a shark bend and turn tighter than you'd expect from something that size. Sharks, rays and skates all belong to the same group, the cartilaginous fishes. Scientists think their ancestors may actually have had bonier skeletons and swapped them for cartilage because it worked better in the water. How does a shark float without bones or a swim bladder? Most bony fish have a swim bladder, a gas-filled pouch that keeps t...