Did you know that tusks are a kind of teeth?
From gigantic canines that might surprise you to snails with thousands of teeth, here
are 8 of the toothiest animals in the world!!!
8.
Narwhal When it comes to pure size, the Narwhal, aka
the "toothed whale", got that name for a reason.
Depending on how you look at it, it has the longest tooth in the world.
At first, you might think that the thing sticking out of a Narwhal’s head is a horn, but it's
actually considered a tusk.
And this particular kind of tusk is a Canine tooth.
One that starts in the mouth, and then literally grows through the head via the jaw, and doesn't
stop growing.
These tusks have been recorded to reach about 10 feet in length (3 m) at times.
Despite its length, it is hollow and only weighs about 22 pounds (9.9 kg).
Though rare, there have been occasions where a Narwhal can even grow two of these massive
tusks at once.
Until relatively recently, scientists didn’t really know what that long tusk was for.
Unlike other whales, they don’t jump out of the water, and maybe they have learned
to stay away from us since they were hunted almost to extinction for their so-called unicorn
horn.
The tusk can be used as an offensive weapon and also to help them keep their balance while
swimming and help the whale understand what's around it.
There are millions of nerve endings on the tusk, and it allows them to interpret details
about the water that they can not only process for themselves, but then share with another
Narwhal by rubbing their tusks across one another.
In 2016, drones led by Adam Ravetch for the World Wildlife Fund Canada, and researchers
from Fisheries and Oceans Canada recorded Narwhals using their tusks for hunting.
It showed Narwhals using their tusks in quick, jagged motions to stun arctic cod and immobilize
the fish, making them easier to prey upon.
7.
Elephants In terms of numerical value, Elephants usually
have around 26 teeth in its mouth which might not sound that impressive, but they do have
the distinction of having the largest teeth in the world: their tusks.
By definition, the tusks of an elephant are their "modified second incisors", which means
that though they don't look it, they are indeed teeth.
Teeth of a very impressive size.
Depending on the species and the age of the elephant, an elephants' tusks can range from
a couple of feet long to nearly 10 feet long in the case of African Elephants.
Plus, these tusks are thick and heavy.
On average, a full-grown elephant tusk can weigh about 100 pounds.
Not so long ago, it could've weighed easily double that.
Which, sadly, is part of the problem.
Elephants ivory tusks have been a curse to them as it is one of the most sought after,
valuable things in the world, and has been for many years.
Teeth or not, many species of Elephant are hunted down and killed solely for their tusks.
In fact, because of this poaching and ivory hunting, many elephant species have gone extinct,
or are very, very close to extinction right now.
The older the elephant, the larger the tusks and many of them just don’t make it that
long any more.
The variation of the tusks on elephants is rather astounding at times.
Sometimes the males have the bigger tusks, but with African Elephants, both males and
females have the same size of tusk.
Other species have males and females that don't have tusks at all.
6.
Giant Armadillo The Giant Armadillo can be found in South
America, and as its name indicates, it is the largest living species of Armadillo.
And it also has the title of having the most teeth of any land mammal on Earth.
How many teeth they have honestly ranges from creature to creature, but they can have as
few as 74, and as many as 100.
What's interesting though is that all of these teeth are the same size, which you wouldn't
expect given the different kinds of teeth most mammals have.
The kinds of teeth that the Giant Armadillo possess are molars and premolars, and they're
actually "born" into the mouth without enamel.
While this may seem odd, it actually speaks to both the Giant Armadillo's mammalian nature,
as well as what they eat.
Mammals more often than not have teeth, but they often have low numbers of them.
And they usually have different kinds of teeth that fit their eating styles and give them
options on how to eat.
For the Giant Armadillo though, they eat termites, although ants, worms, spiders and other invertebrates
are on the menu as well.
So having a lot of particularly small sized teeth allows them to perfectly eat what they
want without any issue.
5.
Great White Sharks One of the most feared sharks in the world
has a reputation for being a very aggressive hunter, makes sense, the bigger they get,
the more they need to eat!!
To be an effective predator in the ocean, you need a large set of teeth to be able to
grab and rip at your prey.
On average, the Great White Shark will have around 300 teeth in its mouth at one time.
Like most sharks, these teeth are arranged into rows, each of which has a different purpose.
For example, the first two rows are used for grabbing, ripping, chewing, and eating prey.
But the farther back you go in these rows, you'll find the "replacement teeth".
Because of the very nature of sharks, they lose teeth quite often, or they'll get worn
down after frequent use and they have to stay sharp!
So nature has come up with a solution and Great Whites will cycle through teeth quite
a bit.
They'll grow them in the back rows of their mouths, and then when a front tooth is lost,
they'll slowly move forward to replace them.
That’s why they look so toothy!
Over the course of their lifetime, the Great White Shark can actually go through around
10,000 teeth!!
Just depends on how often they lose them.
4.
Catfish While catfish may be one of the more popular
"catches" that fishermen will go after, because they are delicious, if you looked inside its
mouth, you'd see something much more fascinating.
Rows upon rows of tiny little teeth.
These teeth actually number over 9,200.
Which seems like a lot of teeth to fit inside one little head.
But of course, you need to take into account the size of these teeth, as well as the head
of the Catfish itself.
The head of a Catfish is wide and flat, and then when you look at the teeth, you'll see
that they're very small, and packed together in rows that actually give off the illusion
that they're not teeth at all, but actually a rough patch of skin.
You might think that with over 9,200 teeth in their mouths that they would lash out and
bite prey when it gets close to them, but that's not the case either.
Catfish are known as "bottom feeders" which means they prefer to go to the bottom of a
certain area where they reside, including rivers and such, and pick off the prey that
is easiest for them to get.
And they don't do it by biting them at first, but by sucking them into their mouths.
That being said, once their prey is in their mouths, they'll use all of their thousands
of teeth to rip them to shreds at times, which is why they can eat things like other fish
and small animals.
3.
Snails Technically speaking, a snail does not have
a set of teeth on them.
As a member of the class Gastropoda, they have a Radula, which is a tongue-like structure
within their mouths that has Denticles.
Denticles are razor-sharp tooth-like structures that allow snails to eat and the radula has
about 25,000 of them on average.
Granted, not all snails have over 20,000 teeth, but many do have numbers within this range.
Such as the Garden Snail, which has around 14,000 teeth.
Other species have around 12,000 or less.
The reason these numbers are usually so big though, is because of the Radula tongue.
The teeth are very small and arranged in rows that allow them to truly encompass the tongue,
thus giving them large numbers of these Denticles.
But why do they need so many teeth?
It's because of what they eat.
Snails are able to find food for sustenance in a variety of places, such as Fungi, rocks,
soil, even in rotting leaves.
These teeth help break everything apart so that the snail can get exactly what it needs.
Though some species of snail are actually carnivorous, more are herbivores or omnivores.
Regardless, they have the teeth necessary to rip their food apart no matter what they
get in their mouths.
2.
Requiem Sharks The term "Requiem Sharks" is actually a reference
to an entire family of sharks that exist in our world.
They're a part of the order Carcharhinidae and consist of creatures like the spinner
shark, the blacknose shark, the blacktip shark, the grey reef shark, the blacktip reef shark,
and the Oceanic whitetip shark.
There are many reasons they're grouped together like this, one of the biggest reasons though
is that this group of sharks is actually rather hard to identify on their own at times.
In terms of body size, they have quite a gap in how big and small they can get.
they range from two-and-a-half feet to about 18 at max.
Just depends on the species and gender.
But inside their mouths, they have enough teeth to rip through just about anything.
And just as important, they'll never run out of teeth.
By that, I mean that at any given time, one of these sharks will have rows of teeth that
number in the hundreds.
Three hundred is the average most thrown around.
But, they always have "backups" in their mouths just in case they lose a tooth.
And they'll "cycle" through teeth pretty regularly given their active and aggressive lifestyles.
Now some sharks, like the Great White Shark, also do this to a certain extent.
But Requiem Sharks do it more frequently.
A Great White will have around 10,000 teeth throughout its life.
A Requiem Shark will grow about 30,000 teeth in certain cases.
Some scientists even joke that humanity should have this, as it would remove the need for
a dentist.
You know, a little scientist humor.
1.
Sea Slugs It may not seem it when you look at a sea
slug, but inside of their mouths are rows upon rows upon rows of spikes, which are technically
teeth, that are located on a Radula, like with the snails that I just told you about.
This is a "ribbon-like" tongue of sorts and according to some, these teeth in certain
species of sea slugs can measure in the hundreds of thousands.
To be clear, their "teeth" aren't like most other species.
Most species, including humans, have teeth that are made from calcium, phosphorous and
other minerals.
But Sea Slug teeth, and regular slug teeth, are made of Chitin, which is something that
is used by insects to make exoskeletons.
Regardless of their composition though, these teeth are razor sharp, and they allow the
sea slugs to eat the food they desire.
Which is appropriate, because many times Sea Slugs will go and try to scrape food off of
rocks and other hard structures, which actually damages their teeth.
But fortunately for them, they have a never-ending cycle of teeth that are able to grow back.
Not unlike certain species of sharks.
But in terms of which of the sea slugs, or just regular slugs, have the most teeth, that
would be the Umbrella Slug, which is said to have up to 750,000 teeth go through its
mouth throughout its lifetime.
Thanks for watching!
What did you think of these toothy creatures?
Can you believe some of these animals have that many teeth?
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