Hi, I'm Danielle Dufault, and you're watching Animalogic: Second Nature.
Show me your teeth and I'll tell you who you are.
Teeth are one of the most useful and specialized adaptations
in the animal kingdom. [male announcer] Not everyone
has teeth which are snow white and evenly spaced,
but anyone can have clean ones.
[Danielle] You can generally get a lot of information
about an animal's diet just by looking at the
tools in their mouth. In some cases,
teeth can evolve into really strange tools. These are nature's
coolest teeth. [♪♪♪]
[male announcer] How are your teeth?
Have you thought of them lately? Well, that's what
we wanna talk about, about your teeth.
Will everybody in the audience please run the tip of his tongue
over his teeth, just to get into the spirit
of the story, please? Th
at's right. Thank you.
Teeth had humble beginnings. They're thought to have
originated from modified scales that helped the first
jawed fish catch their prey. Since then,
fish teeth have developed into a variety of weapons.
Most fish are carnivores, and so their teeth are designed
for snatching prey. The ocean-dwelling
Sloane viperfish and the vampire fish of the
rivers of South America separately evolved
giantúneedle-like teeth to kill prey. In the vampire fishes' case,
their teeth can be up to 15-centimetres long.
The vampire fish doesn't really drink blood,
but there are fish that do, and their mouths are
even more terrifying than your favourite
Transylvanian ghouls. The sea lamprey, for example,
has concentric rows of teeth to attach itself to its prey.
Then it uses the teeth on its tongue to scrape off scales
and flesh until its prey bleeds. It will stay attached until
it's had its fill of blood. Similarly, cookie cutter sharks
have circular mouths with teeth designed to gauge
almost perfectly circular chunks of meat in one bite.
They usually target larger prey
that are unable to stop the small shark's swim-by attack.
Of course, if we're talking about sharks,
we need to mention the incredible badassery
of the helicoprion which lived about
Their lower jaws have a spiral-like structure
full of teeth called a whorl. How it's used and where
it's located on the shark has been a mystery
for a century, but new studies indicate
that it sat inside the mouth closer to the jaw joint.
Palaeontologists say that the buzz-saw shape
was probably used to snarl and slice
into soft-bodied prey like squid.
Their cousins, carcharocles megalodon,
were the largest sharks to ever live.
They had relatively normal teeth, except for the fact
that they could be over 18-centimetres long
and serrated like steak knives. Their prey probably
consisted mostly of whales, so big teeth were necessary.
Looking at the mouth of a predator,
it becomes very evident that you don't want to catch
the business end of those chompers.
One of the most terrifying sets of teeth ever belonged to the mighty T-Rex.
To get into the juicy parts of large, thick-skinned dinosaurs
such as the triceratops, T-Rex needed some of the
largest teeth ever recorded. They were about twice
the size of a banana to go along with a
bite that could produce seven tonnes of force.
If you're watching this video looking for nightmare fuel,
then best places to start are sheepshead fish
and leather back turtles. Trust me.
The sheepshead fish's incisors are eerily human-like,
and they also have rows of molar-looking teeth
on the roof and bottom of their mouths.
They use these chompers to grab, grind, and crush hard prey
such as clams and oysters. The beautiful and famously
chill leatherback turtles prefer softer
prey such as jellies. But keeping them from
slipping out of their mouth can be tricky. Luckily, they have terrifying
teeth-like spines lining the inside of their mouths
all the way down to their esophagus.
They point backwards, so jellies trying to sneak out
get stuck in them. They're like traffic
spikes for lion's mane jellies. [male announcer] If you
are out of toothpaste, a mixture of baking soda
and salt will clean your teeth very well. Moving on to mammals,
but staying in the ocean, we have the misnomered crabeater seals.
These chunky dog mermaids don't eat crab at all.
They're actually Antarctic krill specialists,
and their teeth play a vital role in their hunting success.
When they encounter krill, they take a big gulp
and then push out all the water through the sieve-like teeth.
The water goes out and the krill stays in. Another marine mammal,
the narwhal, has one of the most impressive
canines in the animal kingdom. Though it looks like a horn,
the narwhal's tusk is an elongated canine tooth
that can reach lengths of up to three metres.
Nobody knows what they're used for,
and theories range from sexual selection
to hunting tools to communication devices.
What we do know is that they're extremely
sensitive sensory organs and might be able to detect
changes in water pressure and ocean salinity.
On land, having a nice set of teeth
is usually a great way to get mates.
[male announcer] Turned down by the girls,
can't get to first base. A failure in the army,
in business, in romance. Reason?
Bad teeth. [Danielle] Walruses
have gigantic tusks about one-metre long.
They use them to fight for access to females, but in most cases,
just having larger teeth discourages potential
challengers from picking a fight.
Vampire deer, unlike most other deer species,@lack large antlers,
and instead, they have long, sharp fangs. To fight, they stand
on their hinds legs and punch each other in the
face until one falls down. Then the one that's
left standing comes in with its sharp fangs to deliver a coup de grace.
Elephants sometimes also use their huge tusks
for self-defence, but serious tusk
fights are rare. They're most
ly used as digging tools when looking for salt, water, and roots.
They also use them to mark their territories
by stripping the bark off trees. The weirdest tusks
belong to the babirusa. At first sight, they seem
like obvious fighting tools, but they're far too
brittle to be used in battle. Babirusa are more
boxers than fencers and prefer a good
slap over the face than stabbing
each other with their tusks. Their real purpose
remains a mystery, but they're probably a
way to display fitness. Unfortunately, their fitness
display can become too much of a good thing
as their tusks are known to curve backwards.
If they get too long, they can pierce through the
babirusa's eyes and skull. Finally, we have
the naked mole-rat, an industrious little rodent
that uses its teeth as boring machines.
Naked mole-rats are burrowing animals
and spend all of their lives underground.
Their teeth are outside of their mouths,
so they can dig without swallowing dirt.
They're also used for fighting off invaders and predators.
But the amazing thing about them
is that they can be moved individually
for more precise digging and to carefully carry their babies.
[male announcer] Sure enough, when her friend, the dentist,
looks at Judy's mouth, he was pleased to see her
healthy gums and teeth. [Danielle]
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as they are stylish. Thanks, Undone!
What would you do if you could move your teeth independently?
And what should I talk about next?
Please let me know in the comments,
and be sure to subscribe for new episodes every week.
Thanks for watching, a nd see ya!
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