A new study has revealed that the teeth of the Komodo dragon, the world’s largest lizard, are covered in a protective layer of iron.
When the nearly 200-pound dragons stalk their prey (which can be animals the size of a deer or buffalo), theyTearing the flesh of an unfortunate animalThey have serrated teeth and can tear chunks of skin and muscle and swallow them whole.
The serrated edges and tips of these teeth are encased in iron-based enamel, according to the findings published Wednesday in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Komodos are not the only animals that have iron in their teeth. Crocodiles do too, although in very small amounts.Humans are.
But the iron in Komodo dragon teeth plays a vital role in keeping them sharp and always ready, and scientists have discovered that they are so high in iron that the teeth inside a Komodo dragon’s mouth are often orange in color.
The researchers said the discovery is a step towards answering a more difficult question: whether carnivorous dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, which are thought to have killed their prey by tearing them apart with their teeth, also had teeth made from iron.
Co-author Aaron LeBlanc of King’s College London said in a statement that it’s impossible to tell at this point.
“We suspect that chemical changes that occur during fossilization may obscure how much iron was originally present,” he said.
But Leblanc said further analysis of the Komodo teeth could identify other compounds in the iron coating that are “not altered by fossilization,” which could allow scientists to determine whether the tyrannosaurus teeth were covered in iron even after the iron itself had disappeared.
The discovery of iron enamel is not the first tooth surprise found in a Komodo dragon’s mouth.It has long been believedThe Komodo dragon’s bite was deadly to its prey because the serrated edges harbored lethal amounts of septicemic bacteria.
But in 2009, researchers discovered that in factKill with poison.
