Effective Incisors the Komodo Way
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- Published: Monday, 29 July 2024 09:36
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Improved dental health has reduced the number of denture cases, but along with a lack of retention, soreness, and assorted aesthetic issues, there will still be complaints about difficulty eating. Some patients will say that their new teeth are ‘blunt.‘ The days of denture teeth with steel inserts are now long gone but perhaps their makers were on to something.
Few would argue with the effectiveness of a Komodo dragon’s dentition. They kill larger live prey by inflicting lacerating injuries, and then pull and tear off large chunks of flesh. Recent research from Kings College London has found that their teeth have special properties, even amongst other apex predators.
The research, published in Nature, Ecology and Evolution will add to the understanding of how extinct species such as dinosaurs lived and ate.
The serrated edges of Komodo teeth need to stay sharp and it has been found that they have iron in their teeth concentrated on the cutting edges and tips of their teeth, staining them orange. Crocodiles and other monitor lizards, by comparison, have far less and the iron is often invisible.
To gain a better understanding of the chemical and structural make-up of Komodo teeth, the researchers looked at skulls and teeth from Komodo dragons. They also studied the teeth of Ganas, a 15-year-old Komodo dragon resident at the Zoological Society of London, London Zoo.
Using advanced imaging and chemical analysis, the team found that the iron in Komodo dragons’ enamel is concentrated into a thin coating on top of their tooth serrations and tips, keeping the serrated edges of their teeth sharp.
Dr Aaron LeBlanc, Centre for Oral, Clinical & Translational Sciences, said: "We want to use this similarity to learn more about how carnivorous dinosaurs might have ate and if they used iron in their teeth the same way as the Komodo dragon."
He explained that current techniques could not determine the level of iron in fossils. There was evidence though that larger meat-eating dinosaurs, like tyrannosaurs, did have a different structure of the enamel itself on the cutting edges of their teeth.
Dr LeBlanc added: "With further analysis of the Komodo teeth we may be able to find other markers in the iron coating that aren’t changed during fossilisation. With markers like that we would know with certainty whether dinosaurs also had iron-coated teeth and have a greater understanding of these ferocious predators."
Dr Benjamin Tapley, Curator of Reptiles and Amphibians at Zoological Society of London and co-author on the study said: "Komodo dragons are sadly endangered, so in addition to strengthening our understanding of how iconic dinosaurs might have lived, this discovery also helps us build a deeper understanding of these amazing reptiles as we work to protect them."
With or without iron tipped teeth, patients may not be keen to follow other aspects of Komodo dining etiquette. For small prey, up to the size of a goat, their loosely articulated jaws, flexible skulls, and expandable stomachs allow them to swallow prey whole, though this can be a slow process. A Komodo dragon may attempt to speed this up by ramming the carcass against a tree to force it down its throat, sometimes ramming so forcefully that the tree is knocked down.
The Komodo Dragon" by //www.flickr.com/photos/27590559@N02">Adhi Rachdian is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
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