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Nature has shown us that the microstructure of the skin of fast-swimming sharks in the ocean can reduce the skin friction drag due to the well-known shark-skin effect. In the present study, the effect of shark-skin-inspired riblets on coherent vortex structures in a turbulent boundary layer (TBL) is investigated. This is done by means of tomographic particle image velocimetry (TPIV) measurements in channel flows over an acrylic plate of drag-reducing riblets at a friction Reynolds number of 190. The turbulent flows over drag-reducing riblets are verified by a planar time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TRPIV) system initially, and then the TPIV measurements are performed. Two-dimensional (2D) experimental results with a drag-reduction rate of around 4.81 % are clearly visible over triangle riblets with a peak-to-peak spacing $$s^{+}$$ of 14, indicating from the drag-reducing performance that the buffer layer within the TBL has thickened; the logarithmic law region has shifted upward and the Reynolds shear stress decreased. A comparison of the spatial topological distributions of the spanwise vorticity of coherent vortex structures extracted at different wall-normal heights through the improved quadrant splitting method shows that riblets weaken the amplitudes of the spanwise vorticity when ejection (Q2) and sweep (Q4) events occur at the near wall, having the greatest effect on Q4 events in particular. The so-called quadrupole statistical model for coherent structures in the whole TBL is verified. Meanwhile, their spatial conditional-averaged topological shapes and the spatial scales of quadrupole coherent vortex structures as a whole in the overlying turbulent flow over riblets are changed, suggesting that the riblets dampen the momentum and energy exchange between the regions of near-wall and outer portion of the TBL by depressing the bursting events (Q2 and Q4), thereby reducing the skin friction drag. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]