How many teeth does a shark have? Can't be counted

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

Shark, a bloodthirsty predator, a thunderstorm of the seas and oceans, attacks with lightning speed, knows no pity, is deadly. This short but true characterization applies to only three varieties of sharks. Extremely fast and aggressive four-meter mako shark, brown death. Great white shark, 6-7 meters long, the prototype of the monster in the movie "Jaws". And the tiger shark, five meters long, the most fearless, capable of attacking even a whale. Only three sharks out of more than 400 species. The rest of the sharks are less dangerous due to slowness, not very aggressive and often just a cowardly character. However, if the shark is hungry, it becomes very dangerous. And if the shark suddenly smells blood, it instantly snaps and it becomes a killing machine.

The most dangerous sharks are thermophilic and stay closer to the equator. Favorite habitats for mako and tiger sharks are warm waters in the coastal zone. And the white shark feels great anywhere in the seas and oceans. Sharks, as representatives of marine fauna, do not have a herd instinct and very rarely gather in flocks. They prefer to hunt alone and only during the breeding season begincommunicate with each other. Millions of years of existence - such a long evolution once and for all determined the rules for the life of a shark and it will never become another.

The main and only weapon of a marine predator is its teeth, or rather the jaws with several rows of teeth. How many rows of teeth a shark has depends on its species. The load on the shark's teeth is unprecedented, she has to grab everything indiscriminately with her teeth, her teeth break, crumble and fall out. Therefore, nature took care of the predator, and the shark has a genetic mechanism for changing teeth. This process is fast, and it determines how many teeth the shark will have in the near future. The cyclical change of teeth is about once every two weeks in young sharks and once every two months in old sharks. Moreover, new teeth do not grow in place of the fallen ones, but are already at the ready, pressed against the gums. The old teeth are gone, the new row is up and ready to go. Thus, a shark always has several rows of new teeth in stock, and the question of how many teeth a shark has is not acute.

For example, white sharks and tiger sharks always have "mouthfuls of teeth". In each of the 4-6 rows, bent back and pressed, there are up to 300 teeth. There have been several attempts to calculate how many teeth a whale shark has. It turns out about 15 thousand. The shape of each tooth in different sharks is also different. The classic triangular white shark and complex teeth with small serrations along the edges of the tiger shark. Some species of sharks have irregular, somewhat abstract teeth. from foundation andto the tip, the tooth is curved and becomes thin. Such a tooth will not bite something hard, but if it clings to any flesh, it will be tightly, it will not let go. There are usually fewer such teeth in the shark's mouth, since they break less often. The task of such teeth is to tear the flesh of the victim, and not to cut or crumble it.

Sometimes a shark will raise two or three rows of teeth while hunting, but only the front row of both the upper and lower jaws is always used. The jaws and teeth of sharks are a rather complex and at the same time well-established system. Nature gave bottom sharks, for example, smaller teeth, but with sharply sharpened edges, so that it would be easier to bite through the shells of crabs and lobsters, chitinous shells of crayfish and sea snails. But it is not known how many teeth a shark has if it lives in the bottom zone, some have more, others have less. Sharks that swim in the upper layers of the water, feeding on seals and seals, have naturally received long, curved, dagger-shaped teeth that pierce deep into the victim's body. And mother nature does not limit anyone in the number of teeth, and to the question of how many teeth a shark has, there is only one answer: “as many as you need.”