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

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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.