As you tune up intoShark Weekon Discovery this twelvemonth , you may find yourself asking question like “ How common are shark flack ? ” and “ How do I survive one ? ” A slenderly less alarmist thought might rise up as you contemplate your vulnerability at sea : How many teeth do sharks have , precisely ? The question may seem straightforward , but sharks have some of the most complex and impressive chompers in the animal realm .
accord toDiscovery , the number of teeth in a twosome of jaw you might see in the movieJaws(1975 ) is around 300 . That ’s the case with thegreat white — the most iconic shark and thebiggest speciesthat cash in one’s chips after large prey . But that number describes the total reckoning of tooth in the shark ’s lip , not the teeth they’reactively usingto search and provender .
Though they count formidable , a shark ’s teeth are weak proportional to those of many other fauna . They come apart or weary down easily , which seems like it would be a problem for a predator that swear on its mouth to bring down prey . But sharks have evolve a unique fail - safe ; or else of grow solid tooth , they ’ve develop a way to replace them at an telling rate .
Many sharks , including great whites , have several rows of pearly whites that are constantly rotate like a conveyor belt . raw teeth are move to the front of the mouth and honest-to-goodness tooth are labour out to make way . So while a great white might have C of tooth in look , it only has 50 or so “ active ” teeth at any open time . That ’s not much more than an adulthuman ’s 32 . The number of full tooth produce by a unmarried big lily-white , however , is quite an achievement . The medium great white shark might motorbike through20,000 teethin its life .
capital whites have the most recognizable — and most feared — jaw in the shark family , but they do n’t win the numbers plot . The shark with the most teeth in its mouth is the whale shark , with ahair - raising 3000 . luckily , the aristocratic giant is n’t using its superlative bite on humans . Though they ’re the biggest sharks in the ocean , whale sharkssubsist mostly on a diet of shrimp and plankton .
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