From razor-sharp teeth coated with iron, to molars that can crush a skull like a nut in a nutcracker, the animal kingdom is brimming with killer teeth, says Beki Hooper.
Sometimes these teeth belong to unsurprising species — the ones we know as top predators. But sometimes, they belong to rather unassuming animals.
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- With lethal blades instead of teeth this prehistoric super predator could have had the deadliest bite ever known
Below is a list of ten species with murderous mouths.
Deadliest teeth in the animal kingdom
North Sulawesi babirusa (Babyrousa celebensis)
A wild pig that dwells in the rainforests of Sulawesi, Indonesia, male North Sulawesibabirusa have two pairs of tusks that have evolved from teeth.
While the fragile upper pair is used for defence and to show off to females, the lower pair are used as weapons in male-to-male combat. But it is not the lower pair that are the reason these specialised teeth are so deadly.
The upper tusks can sometimes curl right into the male’s skull, leading to a painful and gruesome death where the male is impaled by his own overgrown canines.
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Narwhal (Monodon monoceros)
Narwhals are famous for their tusk, which can reach up to three metres long, but did you know that it is a specialised canine? The left canine, to be exact.
Again, only males have these, but what exactly they are used for has mystified scientists for decades. It is now thought that these tusks probably have more than one function. While they signal to females that males are strong (the tusk can weigh more than 7kg), and therefore that the male is a good choice of partner, the tusks are also chock-a-block with nerve endings that allow the narwhal to sense its environment.
Recent footage has also revealed a surprising feature of this oversized tooth: it is used to ‘whack’ fish, stunning them so that the narwhal can gobble them right up.
One thing is for sure though: while this oversized tooth might be used to give fish an unexpected concussion, it is not actually necessary to narwhal survival — tuskless females get on very well with ‘normal’ teeth.
Pacific viperfish (Chauliodus macouni)
Deep-sea dwellers, we don’t know a huge amount about Pacific viperfish behaviour. But what we do know is that their vampire-esque teeth are used in a totally unexpected way.
When hunting, the viperfish swims super quickly towards its prey — small fish and shrimp— until they collide, with the prey becoming impaled on the viperfish’s teeth. Its teeth then act as prison bars, making escape impossible.
Because of its hunting style, the Pacific viperfish is known as one of the most ferocious deep-sea fish. It even has ‘shock-absorber’ vertebrae behind its head so that it feels no ill-effect of its high-speed collisions.
I think I speak for all surface-dwelling animals when I say this critter can keep calling the deep, deep ocean its home.
Dromedary camel (Camelus dromedarius)
A herbivore that mainly eats foliage, camels are perhaps a surprising animal to find on a list of creatures with the deadliest teeth, but have you ever seen a camel’s canines?
Used for defence during fights with other camels, males have evolved huge canines capable of inflicting serious damage — and they don’t just save this damage for members of their own species.
Famously cantankerous, camels sometimes turn against humans. Standing at over 7 feet tall, weighing up to 1500lbs, and with extremely strong jaws, camels have been known to bitehuman heads when they get annoyed. When they do this, they can crush a human skull like a nut in a nutcracker.
Anecdotal stories suggest that camels tend to lash out when physically uncomfortable; for example when they are too hot or too hungry. Keeping a camel happy, well-fed, and well-rested might just be lifesaving, then.
Gaboon viper (Bitis gabonica)
Not the deadliest snake in the world, and not the biggest either, the gaboon viper does have one record to its name: it has the longest fangs of any snake.
A native of central and southern Africa, the Gaboon viper is a rainforest-dwelling reptile. It is slow-moving until its prey — usually small mammals and birds — comes close. Then it lurches from its resting spot and grabs a hold of its victim with its two-inch fangs.
Unusually for venomous snakes, it holds onto its prey with its mega-fangs so that it can keep injecting poison. Because of this hunting style, and the sheer size of its fangs, it injects more poison than almost any other snake.
Luckily, it doesn’t pose much of a threat to humans. It is not aggressive, and tends to only bite if stepped on.
If bitten by a Gaboon viper though, it is a medical emergency. The hollow teeth inject highly potent venom that can quickly kill.
Sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus)
Sea lampreys — the biggest of all lamprey species — are peculiar fish. Rather than an ordinary jaw, they have a circular ‘sucker’ lined with rows of tiny, hooked teeth. The reason for this is a little nightmarish.
Native to the northern hemisphere, sea lampreys clamp onto the flesh of other fish with their hooked teeth, and then suck out their blood. The lampreys never let the attachment wound heal, constantly rasping at it with their teeth and tongue while slowly sucking the fish dry.
While sea lampreys have occasionally attached to humans, they let go as soon as they realise they have bitten a warm-blooded animal, which thankfully are not on their menu.
Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
Hippos — residents of sub-Saharan Africa — have humungous canines. Much like the camel, they are also herbivores who have evolved canines for fighting amongst themselves. Also like the camel, they are well-known for their bad tempers.
Hippos are highly territorial, and will do whatever they can to defend their land and their young. With lower canines that can reach an immense 20-inches-long (that’s over one-and-a-half feet), and incredibly powerful jaws, the only animal that stands much of a chance against an angry hippo is another angry hippo.
They are one of the most aggressive animals on the planet. It is estimated that they kill over 500 (potentially up to 3000) people a year, and the risk of death from a hippo attack is much higher than if attacked by a lion or a leopard.
The worst injuries resulting from hippo attacks tend to be deep lacerations caused by the hippos’ canines, as well as crush-wounds caused by the force of their bite or the weight of their bodies.
Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias)
We can’t have a list of the deadliest teeth in the world without including the great white shark.
The great white’s teeth are serrated — meaning they have a jagged edge like a steak knife. This lets them easily tear their prey (sometimes as big as a humpback whale) into bitesizechunks.
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Great white shark teeth can get up to two-and-a-half inches long, which is plenty big enough to cause major damage, but an ancient relative of theirs — the megalodon — had much bigger teeth.
With six-inch-long serrated teeth, megalodons were fearsome predators — even more fearsome than the great white.
Because of acidifying oceans caused by climate change, great whites (and other sharks)might be losing their bite — their teeth are likely to start crumbling as our oceans get more acidic.
Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis)
Komodo dragons, native to Indonesia and the worlds largest and deadliest lizard, have sixty serrated teeth that are frequently replaced so that they stay in tip-top killing condition. And what’s more, scientists recently discovered that these teeth are coated in a thin, iron-rich layer, which keeps them razor sharp and super strong.
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When Komodo dragons bite their prey — which can be as large as a deer — they bite down forcefully and pull back quickly with their strong neck muscles. This creates a huge, open wound. The bite-and-pull action also spreads neurotoxic venom from between the dragon’s teeth into the prey’s tissues. This venom causes massive internal bleeding, and often leads to a quick death.
If the prey animal is lucky enough to escape the initial attack, the dragon will slowly stalk it until it succumbs to the venom. Then, the animal will be torn up and swallowed down in chunks.
Buzzsaw shark (Helicoprion)
Now extinct, the buzzsaw shark has to take first place. Unlike any living animal, this 250-million-year-old creature had hundreds of teeth spiralled up inside its mouth.
The largest teeth were just under four inches long, and — like great white sharks, megalodons and Komodo dragon teeth — they were serrated.
It is thought that these bizarre creatures fed by using their frontmost teeth (those on the outer edge of the spiral) to ‘snag’ squid. Then the squid would be pulled towards the centre of the spiral, where the body would be speared by the spiral’s central teeth. Finally, the hind teeth would push the meal down the throat.
As the prey went further and further towards the throat, getting speared and punctured along the way, it would also be slowly crushed.
It sounds like an incredibly gruesome way to go, and definitely worthy of this list’s top spot.
