Great White Teeth
Great whites are amongst the largest predatory sharks on the planet and have very deadly teeth! They need them to attack prey and tear it apart. These sharks have about 300 teeth that are triangular in shape, serrated, and razor-sharp. The teeth are anchored in fragile cartilage so it is not unusual for them to get wrenched out. This is not a problem! The teeth are constantly replaced throughout the shark’s life. There is a coil-like reserve of backup teeth in the jaw and the process is constant. Thousands of teeth can be replaced during the great white’s lifetime. In most sharks, the teeth are arranged in five rows. The teeth also move forward when the mouth opens and retract when the jaw closes. They have loads of nerve cells that send signals back to the brain and provide a lot of information about what they are biting. Because they do not have hands, they use their teeth to investigate their environment so it is possible that this shark was simply checking the fisherman out and he cut his hand on the serrated teeth during the process.
Injuries Caused by Great Whites
Luckily, this fisherman suffered only minor injuries. However, sharks have inflicted serious and fatal injuries on humans. Some experts argue that these attacks are partly due to mistaken identity – the sharks mistook humans for seals. The fisherman also claims that there is an anticoagulant on the shark’s teeth that makes their prey bleed more and makes them easier to overcome. There are other anecdotal reports of people bleeding more than they expected when they have cuts from handling some fish but there is no scientific consensus on this yet. Nevertheless, there is some evidence that shark skin contains an anti-coagulant, and further research into this would be fascinating.
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