i am doing a report about the great white shark and i need to know how.. it grows all of its teeth…. what makes its teeth so they can grow back what are they made out of?
Sharks loose and grow teeth throughout their entire lives. Their teeth are specialized versions of the little "teeth" in their skin, the dermal denticles. Quite recently engineers realized that by reducing the amount of turbulence these denticles greatly reduce the drag on a shark as it glides through the water. This discovery is now used to create rough surfaces on e.g. airplane wings! If you look into a shark’s mouth, you can see row after row of teeth. Note that the flatter side of a tooth is the part that faces outwards (towards the lips, the labial side) once it has marched forward to the front row. The rounder side faces inwards (towards the tongue, the lingual side). Once it reaches the front row, a given tooth may only last 10 days. Given that there can be 50 teeth in the front rows of the upper and lower jaws, and they only last 10 days, a single shark sheds around 1800 teeth per year, and tens of thousands in a life time. Which explains why fossil shark teeth are so common. If you ever visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore, look for teeth on the bottom of the shark tank!
Has three different types of tissues: the orthodentine and osteodentine, which form the pulp cavity and root structure of a tooth, and the enameloid, which is the hard outer surface.
They are genetically programmer to constantly grow teeth, just like were programmer to only grow 2 sets
They are made from the same dentine, enamal, and bone as ours
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shark#Teeth
Pretty interesting stuff dude
References :
Sharks of all species continually shed their teeth and grow new ones. They have 40 or more teeth in each jaw. Behind the functional rows or teeth are seven other rows of teeth developing into mature dentures to replace teeth as they are shed or lost. In ten years, an average Tiger shark can produce as many as 24,000 teeth.
For more info, Google "general shark dentition".
References :
Sharks loose and grow teeth throughout their entire lives. Their teeth are specialized versions of the little "teeth" in their skin, the dermal denticles. Quite recently engineers realized that by reducing the amount of turbulence these denticles greatly reduce the drag on a shark as it glides through the water. This discovery is now used to create rough surfaces on e.g. airplane wings! If you look into a shark’s mouth, you can see row after row of teeth. Note that the flatter side of a tooth is the part that faces outwards (towards the lips, the labial side) once it has marched forward to the front row. The rounder side faces inwards (towards the tongue, the lingual side). Once it reaches the front row, a given tooth may only last 10 days. Given that there can be 50 teeth in the front rows of the upper and lower jaws, and they only last 10 days, a single shark sheds around 1800 teeth per year, and tens of thousands in a life time. Which explains why fossil shark teeth are so common. If you ever visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore, look for teeth on the bottom of the shark tank!
Has three different types of tissues: the orthodentine and osteodentine, which form the pulp cavity and root structure of a tooth, and the enameloid, which is the hard outer surface.
References :
http://mysite.verizon.net/browniebeach/sharks.html
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/05/09/alabama-shark.html