The amazing mouths of animals

Although us humans have 32 teeth (in general), the animal kingdom contains a wide range of teeth numbers, types and uses.  

If you should ever have the misfortune of coming close enough to an alligator or crocodile did you know you can tell them apart from their teeth? Alligator teeth are conical for grabbing and holding their prey because alligators swallow their prey whole.  Crocodiles have a tooth that you can see on the outside when their mouths are closed.  The crocodile even has it’s own hygienist,  the Crocodile Bird flies into the crocodile's open mouth to clean out food debris from between their teeth.  Not a job many would want.

Groundhogs (as in Groundhog Day) have only 19 teeth which they chew with. Cats have 30, dogs 42 and pigs 44 but they are all beaten by the amazing armadillo which has 104 teeth.

Unlike us, and cows, cats can’t chew their food as their jaws don’t move side to side.  Instead of molars they have four ‘carnassials’ which act like scissors for cutting the food.  The rest of their teeth are conical shaped, like the alligator, so they can hold on to their prey.

Great White sharks are probably the winner when it comes to teeth numbers though.  The Great White has several rows of jagged, triangular teeth somewhere in the region of 3000 of them.  Whenever they lose a tooth the tooth behind moves forward to they always have a full set of teeth.

Modern turtles don’t have any teeth at all, although fossils of prehistoric turtles do have teeth.  Some turtles have sharp beaks and strong jaws which replace the need for teeth.

And the title of largest teeth goes to the 70 tonne Sperm Whale.  Each tooth can be 8 inches long, whereas conversely the largest mammal on Earth the Blue Whale only eats tiny things because it has no teeth for chewing!