Member-only story
Why open the mouth?
They are threatening or funny to us. Their opening announces an attack on the victim, but it can also be just a way to scare off the enemy or cool down the body.
The victim must be caught quickly and efficiently. It cannot get away. The best invention of nature here are sharp teeth, which are found not only in mammals, but also, for example, in fish. Such a piranha prefers fresh meat in its diet. So it hunts in groups for fish and shrimps. The teeth help to tear apart prey or scrape vegetation from rocks to supplement its diet. The fish replaces them from time to time, but is not defenseless. It simply drops a block of teeth (they hook into each other with their protuberances, which creates a kind of latch) on one side of its head only. Before the old ones fall out, the new ones push them out from underneath. A shark also has impressive (and effective) teeth. Arranged in several rows, they are replaced by new ones as the old ones wear down. Their design means that the shark has nothing to fear, not even tooth decay. Sometimes it swallows rather strange things; chairs, wine bottles and shoes, among others, have been found in its stomach. A young tiger shark makes particularly ghastly use of its maw. The first individual hatched from an egg while still in the womb devours its siblings.
Elephants also change their teeth. When the old ones wear down, new ones slide in from the back of…
