On the Separation Mechanism between a Shark’s Tooth and Its Jaw Base, with Special Emphasis on an Observation Made from a White Shark, Carcharodon carcharias ()
Affiliation(s)
1Department of Mathematics & Statistics, University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, USA.
2Shark Research Institute Global Shark Attack File, Princeton, NJ, USA.
3Shark School 5970 Osprey Place, Pensacola, FL, USA.
ABSTRACT
Feeding is the likely cause for tooth shedding in
sharks. Although the overall process of loosing teeth has been well studied,
hardly any emphasis has been given to the actual separation mechanism between a
shark’s tooth base and the surrounding jaw tissue. Attention is given to this
very process, in connection to a never before videotaped tooth loss of a white
shark, Carcharodon carcharias, that occurred within 0.3 seconds. Since
the shark did not bite into anything prior to this observation, the cause for
this tooth loss does not seem feeding but fatigue related, triggered through a
combination of mechanical and potentially biochemical degradation processes.
Share and Cite:
Ritter, E. and Dellios, A. (2018) On the Separation Mechanism between a Shark’s Tooth and Its Jaw Base, with Special Emphasis on an Observation Made from a White Shark,
Carcharodon carcharias.
Open Journal of Animal Sciences,
8, 329-334. doi:
10.4236/ojas.2018.83024.