The team compared dinosaur and prehistoric shark teeth with those from great white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias)
New research by scientists in Germany has uncovered a curious difference between present-day shark teeth and those of their prehistoric relatives. Although the tooth structure of extinct sharks, like the giant Megalodon, was remarkably similar to great whites and other modern-day sharks, the material they were made from bore a closer resemblance to dinosaur teeth and hints that this change in composition might be down to a dramatic environmental change.
Most animal teeth contain a layer of hard enamel, a soft dentin middle and inner pulp. Dentin and enamel are usually composed of the mineral hydroxyapatite but modern-day sharks differ; their enamel equivalent uses fluoroapatite.
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Dental lessons from past to present: ultrastructure and composition of teeth from plesiosaurs, dinosaurs, extinct and recent sharks
A. Lübke, J. Enax, K. Loza, O. Prymak, P. Gaengler, H.-O. Fabritius, D. Raabe and M. Epple
RSC Adv., 2015,5, 61612-61622
DOI: 10.1039/C5RA11560D, Paper
