As if komodo dragons weren’t wonderful sufficient, these large lizards actually have tooth of iron.
A brand new research of those formidable predators’ chompers has revealed concentrated deposits of iron alongside the serrated tearing edges and the information of their tooth, serving to to maintain them razor-sharp for tearing the flesh from the prey they devour.
Though many vertebrates have iron enhancements of their tooth, komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) and different related species with serrated tooth, known as ziphodonts, symbolize probably the most hanging examples discovered thus far.
Actually, a lot iron is concentrated alongside the sharp edges of komodo tooth that they’re tinted orange.
By no means earlier than has iron been discovered so localized alongside the slicing fringe of a vertebrate tooth. This implies {that a} stronger leading edge confers a aggressive benefit, and should yield insights into how a few of the fiercest dinosaurs devoured their meals.
“Komodo dragons have curved, serrated tooth to tear and tear their prey similar to these of meat-eating dinosaurs,” says paleontologist Aaron LeBlanc of King’s School London.
“We wish to use this similarity to study extra about how carnivorous dinosaurs might need ate [sic] and in the event that they used iron of their tooth the identical approach because the Komodo dragon.”
Komodo dragons are, let’s simply be blunt right here, superior creatures.
Not solely is it the biggest dwelling lizard species (the biggest ever measured was 166 kilograms, or 366 kilos, though they’re usually around half that weight), they’re sturdy, quick, cunning, can greatest prey much larger than themselves, and are carrying full-body bone mail armor beneath their scaly skins.
![A komodo dragon eating something](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencealert.com/images/2024/07/KomodoDragonMunchingFlesh.jpg?resize=642%2C500&ssl=1)
They’re, certainly, spectacular hunters, and their highly effective jaws can ship a nasty chew loaded with anticoagulant venom to exacerbate the speed of blood loss of their prey.
They’re additionally identified for his or her very sharp, serrated tooth, curved like scimitars.
As a result of komodo dragons are the biggest dwelling lizards, and since related ziphodont tooth have been noticed in extinct dinosaurs such because the theropod clade which incorporates Tyrannosaurus rex, it’s thought that the dentition of those marvelous lizards can provide us insights into how dinosaurs bit, tore, and ate.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencealert.com/images/2024/07/tooth-orange-slice.jpg?resize=642%2C477&ssl=1)
With a view to get a bit extra perception into komodo dragon dental effectivity, the researchers studied the tooth of a male komodo dragon named Ganas, who lived at London Zoo and was euthanized in February 2023 after being recognized with untreatable degenerative arthritis.
Ganas’ stays had been preserved, and the researchers had been capable of conduct a radical examination of his tooth.
They used superior microscopy and spectroscopy strategies to investigate the composition of Ganas’ tooth, and located that orange tint alongside the serrated edge and on the tip is the results of iron sequestered in that location.
This implies that dinosaurs might have had an identical adaptation, however when the researchers checked out dinosaur tooth, they had been unable to substantiate whether or not this was the case.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencealert.com/images/2024/07/komodo-eat-642x374.jpg?resize=642%2C374&ssl=1)
“Sadly, utilizing the know-how we’ve got in the intervening time, we will not see whether or not fossilized dinosaur tooth had excessive ranges of iron or not. We expect that the chemical modifications which happen in the course of the fossilization course of obscure how a lot iron was current to start out with,” LeBlanc explains.
“What we did discover, although, was that bigger meat-eating dinosaurs, like tyrannosaurs, did change the construction of the enamel itself on the slicing edges of their tooth. So, whereas Komodo dragons have altered the chemistry of their tooth, some dinosaurs altered the construction of their dental enamel to keep up a pointy leading edge.”
The researchers hope {that a} extra detailed evaluation of komodo dragon tooth would possibly reveal some traits related to the serrated iron edges that will not have been erased by the fossilization course of. This might assist us higher perceive how these historical beasts lived.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencealert.com/images/2024/07/komodo-skull.jpg?resize=642%2C408&ssl=1)
And, after all, the findings give us some perception into komodo dragons, the dwelling, respiration animals that also share our planet.
“Komodo dragons are sadly endangered,” says herpetologist Benjamin Tapley of the Zoological Society of London, “so along with strengthening our understanding of how iconic dinosaurs might need lived, this discovery additionally helps us construct a deeper understanding of those wonderful reptiles as we work to guard them.”
The analysis has been printed in Nature Ecology & Evolution.