TEETH TO SPARE

If great white sharks had tooth fairies, they’d be rich! A great white loses and replaces thousands of its teeth during its lifetime. Its upper jaw is lined with 26 front-row teeth; its lower jaw has 24. Behind these razor-sharp points are many rows of replacement teeth. The “spares” move to the front whenever the shark loses a tooth. At any one time about one-third of a shark’s teeth are in the replacement stage.

Text by David George Gordon
Photograph by C. & M. Fallows/Seapics.com