{"id":247178,"date":"2024-07-24T14:16:43","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T14:16:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/24\/komodo-dragons-have-teeth-capped-with-a-layer-of-iron\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:14:04","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:14:04","slug":"komodo-dragons-have-teeth-capped-with-a-layer-of-iron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2024\/07\/24\/komodo-dragons-have-teeth-capped-with-a-layer-of-iron\/","title":{"rendered":"Komodo dragons have teeth capped with a layer of iron"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ad_1]
\n<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
\n
\n

Komodo dragons are fierce predators<\/p>\n

Charlotte Ellis\/Zoological Society of London<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Komodo dragon, one of the planet\u2019s fiercest reptiles, reinforces its teeth with an iron cap \u2013 and researchers think some dinosaurs may have had this adaptation too.<\/p>\n

Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis<\/em>) are endemic to a number of Indonesian islands. Their prey include large animals like deer, pigs and water buffalo, and they can reach lengths of 3 metres and weights of 150 kilograms.<\/p>\n

When he noticed orange serrations on the animals\u2019 teeth, Aaron LeBlanc<\/a> at King\u2019s College London says he initially dismissed it as staining. \u201cOnly after visiting museum collections and looking at all of the teeth along the skulls of many Komodo dragon specimens was I convinced that I was looking at a novel adaptation in these iconic reptiles,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

LeBlanc and his colleagues used high-powered X-rays at a synchotron facility to probe the Komodos\u2019 tooth surfaces and determine the different elements that are found along the tooth.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we mapped out sections of Komodo dragon teeth, we quickly realised that iron was concentrated along the cutting edges and tooth tips, but not on other parts of the tooth,\u201d says LeBlanc. \u201cThis also precisely matches the orange staining we can see on the teeth under the microscope.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\"Komodo<\/div>
\n
\n

A Komodo dragon tooth with its orange cap made of iron<\/p>\n

Dr Aaron LeBlanc, King\u2019s College London<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Compared with human teeth, Komodo dragon enamel is incredibly thin, says LeBlanc. Along the serrations, the enamel is only 20 micrometres thick \u2013 about a quarter of the thickness of a human hair. The enamel in human teeth is about 100 times thicker.<\/p>\n

The iron layer in Komodo dragon teeth is coated on top of this extremely thin layer of enamel. The team think it either gives the enamel extra strength to protect serrations while eating prey or acts as a barrier against acidic digestive juices.<\/p>\n

Iron is readily available in the environment \u2013 even more so to a large, meat-eating predator. It is thought that the cells that make the enamel switch their behaviour for the final coat to produce this iron-rich finish.<\/p>\n

Crocodiles and alligators can concentrate iron in their enamel too, but they don\u2019t have iron-rich caps on their teeth.<\/p>\n

The researchers also searched for iron capping in fossil dinosaur teeth. While they haven\u2019t yet found evidence for this, they think that might be down to fossilisation destroying the iron signal. \u201cWe need to examine more pristinely preserved dinosaur teeth to be sure,\u201d says LeBlanc.<\/p>\n

LeBlanc says his dentist colleagues are intrigued by the possibilities of these natural materials. \u201cWe\u2019re a long way from it, but I can imagine a time where we are using nature for inspiration for novel enamel coatings. Maybe one of these will be inspired by Komodo dragons,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\n

Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n

[ad_2]
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ad_1] Komodo dragons are fierce predators Charlotte Ellis\/Zoological Society of London The Komodo dragon, one of the planet\u2019s fiercest reptiles, reinforces its teeth with an<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}