Examine the photographs of the spiny dogfish shark with its body cavity slit open by clicking the blue lettered links in the column to the right. The shark specimen in the photographs was prepared by turning it ventral side up and making a mid-ventral incision just anterior to the cloacal opening. It was cut in an anterior direction slightly to the right of the mid-ventral line. This cut was continued all the way to the pectoral girdle. The inside of the large body cavity was exposed. The large flaps of body wall were folded back and pinned.