Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
The Helicoprion is an ancient sea creature that lived in the ocean about 270 million
years ago.
It’s believed that the Helicoprion, like other sharks, managed to survive the Great
Dying that killed off up to 96% of marine species worldwide, and didn’t go extinct
until 230 million years ago.
But what if this enormous shark was alive and well to this day?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question: What if the Helicoprion Didn’t Go Extinct?
The Helicoprion is one of the most interesting and unique sea creatures of all time.
Little is known of its appearance, since the fossil discoveries have been almost exclusively
of the teeth, with just small samples of cranial cartilage to give further clues.
This is because its skeleton was made of cartilage, which caused its body to disintegrate as it
decayed.
Based on its fossilized teeth, it’s believed to have been very large, with estimates ranging
between 10 and 40 feet in length, but other than that there’s rather little that can
be inferred about its appearance.
By far the coolest part, that mystified scientists for years, was its teeth.
The Helicoprion had a spiral set of teeth, known as a Whorl, spelled WHORL, that it used
to eat its prey.
The resemblance to a circular saw is uncanny, and something quite unique in the animal kingdom.
This tooth whorl has been the subject of a good deal of controversy amongst scientists.
Without other fossils to compare and piece the creature together, it was little more
than a guessing game as to how this whorl worked.
Some believed that it was inside the mouth, others claimed it to be located on the tail.
However, recent scans of fossils have suggested that the whorl was a singular structure that
was fused to the lower jaw, growing into the jaw, with no teeth on the upper jaw.
This is the current consensus.
It’s also believed, due to the lack of damage to the teeth, that the Helicoprion fed on
softer prey, like squid and small fish.
It’s believed that the tooth whorl would slice fish within its mouth, while simultaneously
pushing them down its throat, when the helicoprion closed its mouth.
Neat.
Okay, so now we know what it was, but what if it managed to avoid extinction 230 million
years ago?
Would it change the world as we know it?
Well, probably not.
As interesting and awesome as the helicoprion was, and as cool as it would be to see one
nowadays, its existence wouldn’t change a whole lot.
It’s likely that given its unique, and frankly, straight up awesome, looks, the helicoprion
would be a very popular entry in aquariums.
It would, of course, require a good deal of space due to its size, but the cost of keeping
it would likely be offset by the popularity of the exhibit, and the resulting money from
spectators.
On the other hand, if it hadn’t gone extinct, it might not be quite so interesting since
we’d be more used to it.
If we had known about fish with tooth whorls for so long, people might just view it as
a curiosity, similar to the head of a hammerhead shark.
Furthermore, the addition of this extra shark would bring about some changes to ocean ecosystems.
However, we already touched on this idea in another video.
For more information on that, check out our video, What if the Megalodon didn’t Go Extinct.
Of course, since the helicoprion was much more ancient that the Megalodon, these changes
would be further reaching, but would also be much less predictable.
It’s even possible that if the Helicoprion was discovered by humans, they might use the
understanding of its teeth to invent the circular saw earlier than 1813.
This might sound inconsequential, but it would certainly improve the functioning of sawmills,
and could help civilization to advance even further.
Since circular saws can be made to cut a number of different materials, it might even open
up other options for construction that otherwise would not have been available at the time.
However, it’s rather unlikely that we would come across these sharks very often, and even
less likely that someone with an inventive mind would see it, yell “Eureka!” and
go invent the miter saw.
But it’s fun to think about.
And now we return to our question: What if the Helicoprion Didn’t Go Extinct?
Well, at the end of the day, not a whole lot would change.
The ocean would be a slightly more dangerous place, and we might see some strangely mutilated
creatures, but there are already so many things with teeth under the sea, that this addition,
however unique, likely wouldn’t affect much.
We would see them in aquariums quite often due to their unique look, but that’s not
a huge change.
It’s vaguely possible that the circular teeth might inspire an earlier invention of
the circular saw, which would aid the development of industry, but that’s rather unlikely.
Other than that, an extra shark in the ocean wouldn’t do a whole lot.
Let’s be real; this video was mostly an excuse to talk about the helicoprion’s awesome
teeth.
And by golly, I regret nothing.
Those teeth are cool.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions, I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it further on your own.
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While you’re down there, let me know what YOU think would change if the Helicoprion
was real.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.