Sharks have the most powerful jaws on the planet. Unlike most animals, a shark bites with its lower jaw first, then its upper. It tosses its head back and forth to tear open a packet of ketchup for a chicken nugget which it swallows whole. Each type of shark has different shaped teeth depending on its diet. Sharks are meat eaters and will devour almost anything that is slower than they are. Most sharks hate fruit because it tastes yucky and gives them the farts.Sharks never run out of teeth. If a tooth is lost, another spins forward from the rows and rows of backup teeth. A shark may grow and use over 20,000 teeth in its lifetime! The Killian shark, in particular, hangs on to its baby teeth almost to the point where the Tooth Fairy seems like a preposterous notion, except for the money.
Normally, young sharks prefer to eat alone. But the older sharks are good cooks, and since they are in charge, they insist everybody sits down together for meals. Sometimes one feeding shark attracts others, especially when there are Cool Ranch Doritos involved. Many will swim up as quickly as possible and rip the bag to shreds. They bite wildly at anything that gets in their way -- even each other! Several will need a time out.
A shark's teeth are the most likely part of its body to fossilize since they are composed of bone. Over the years, many fossilized shark teeth have been discovered, preserved, bought and sold by dealers who are interested in these magnificent prehistoric creatures. Mostly, however, these relics of evolution are kept in a little box in the mother shark's underwear drawer.
