This tiny creature with the sharpest teeth lived millions of years ago

Animals known today for their powerful jaws, such as hyenas, crocodiles, and tigers, offer impressive examples of bite force. However, when we ask who has the sharpest teeth in nature, the answer lies neither in today's forests nor in the oceans. To answer this question, we must go much further back in time, half a billion years ago.

Small, eel-like creatures known as conodonts emerged during the Precambrian period, around 500 million years ago, and persisted for around 300 million years. Just a few centimeters long, these creatures lacked jaws. However, their mouths contained extremely thin, hard, tooth-like structures called "elements." The tips of these structures were only 2 micrometers wide, making them some of the sharpest biological structures known.

LIKE NEEDLES PROJECTING FROM TEETH

As Dr. Alistair Evans of Monash University, as cited by Chip, noted, these tooth-like elements were arranged almost like needles protruding from the tooth. In the species Wurmiella excavata, in particular, these structures operated in a razor-sharp pattern, moving from left to right rather than up and down. According to the researchers, this unusual mechanism provided a unique and effective way to dismember prey.

In a 2012 study published in the journal "Conodont Dentology," paleobiologist Philip Donoghue from the University of Bristol took a closer look at the dentition of conodonts. Donoghue and his team sought to understand how these delicate structures functioned and what feeding behaviors they exhibited. Their research revealed that conodonts, instead of chewing like modern vertebrates, dismembered their prey by focusing on the tip of each sharp tooth. Instead of a powerful jaw, they fed with strategically placed, sharp-tipped teeth, effectively slicing their prey into thin slices.

Donoghue explains this mechanism as follows: “These blade-like teeth first close at the back, move forward, and then open again.” This system provided an effective cutting function by directing the pressure generated in the mouth to specific points on the prey.

Another finding is that conodonts may have possessed the ability to repair or re-sharpen these tiny tooth structures that wear down over time. Unfortunately, this ability does not appear to have been passed down to modern animals through evolution. Among living creatures today, there are many species remarkable for their dental structures and jaw strength. However, the fact that the sharpest known tooth-like structures belong to a species that lived hundreds of millions of years ago and is now extinct demonstrates once again how creative and surprising the evolutionary process can be.