Researchers from A*STAR's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB) have discovered that the skeleton of the strange-looking elephant shark consists entirely of cartilage instead of bones — information that may potentially aid in the treatment of human bone disease.
The elephant shark — a member of cartilaginous fishes — is unable to replace cartilage with bone and further analysis of it shows the absence of a family of genes that is present in all bony vertebrates.