Mammal-like muscles power swimming in a cold-water shark

Diego Bernal (), Jeanine M. Donley, Robert E. Shadwick () and Douglas A. Syme
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Diego Bernal: University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Jeanine M. Donley: Miracosta College
Robert E. Shadwick: Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Douglas A. Syme: University of Calgary

Nature, 2005, vol. 437, issue 7063, 1349-1352

Abstract: Sharks warm to the task Whales are mammals and warm-blooded, sharks are fish and in the main cold-blooded. But in order to survive in the cold waters of the north Pacific Ocean, the salmon shark has become endothermic, maintaining a core body temperature that is higher than the surroundings, presumably a good move for animals that are continuously swimming. A study of salmon shark musculature shows that it is so specialized for endothermy that the red, aerobic muscles used for continuous swimming are remarkably mammal-like, functioning only within a narrow, elevated temperature range. These muscles are ineffectual if exposed to cool water, though the white muscles used for burst swimming work well in the cold. The red aerobic muscles in this shark mark it out from ‘ectothermic’ fish and are an evolutionary convergence with similarly endothermic tunas, and it seems that they have both edged towards mammals in the muscle stakes.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature04007

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