Dinosaurs devoted a lot of literature. Movies that have become cult have been made. For example, "Jurassic Park", all three parts. There is a museum in Moscow dedicated to these long extinct creatures.
Some of the dinosaurs were formidable. Others, despite their size, are absolutely calm. We can imagine what a carnivorous tyrannosaurus rex and herbivorous triceratops looked like. But we probably don’t really imagine what dinosaur teeth looked like. Then we'll talk about it.
Predators. Is it toothy?
They are scary. There is no escape from them. They overtake their prey and deal with it in one moment. Of course, we will talk about carnivorous dinosaurs.
Their teeth were serrated and very sharp daggers. If you pay attention to the teeth of a dinosaur called "megalosaurus", you can see that they look like a saw with their notches. The teeth of predators were bent inwards. This allowed them to keep their prey. Now it is clear why those unfortunate whogot caught for dinner by a tyrannosaurus rex or an allosaurus, could not escape. They didn't stand a chance unless the predator closed its jaws.
As for the length, the teeth of the larger predatory dinosaurs reached a length of 30 cm. In the same Allosaurus, they were shorter: 15-20 cm. The number also varied. On average, predators had 28-32 teeth. But, for example, in a Tyrannosaurus rex, their number was 55-60 pieces.
Herbivorous dinosaurs
Their teeth were not as sharp as those of predators. For they were intended for grinding leaves, and not for crushing meat into pieces. We can safely distinguish several types of dinosaur teeth related to herbivores.
Knives
Perhaps, this is the only subspecies of teeth that differ only slightly from the fangs of predators. Some representatives of ornithopods could boast of knives. Their teeth were located in the very depths of the mouth. When the ornithopod closed it, the teeth closed tightly, and this made it easier to chew food.
Secateurs
Such teeth were the property of Triceraptos. Their number reached several hundred. The teeth were tightly attached to the jaws with V-shaped roots. Used to cut food into small pieces.
Rake
Someone could shine with more than one hundred teeth, and someone had to put up with the lack of teeth for chewing leaves. For example, diplodocus. Their teeth were shaped like pencils or rakes. The teeth of the diplodocus dinosaur were used to peel off leaves and swallow them. Even without chewing, due to the fact that the jaws wereweak.
Interesting facts
Not only lizard teeth are interesting to discuss. There are also other facts that we will now tell about:
- Dinosaur teeth had the property of rapid regeneration. Therefore, if a huge or not very "lizard" had teeth falling out, then this was not terrible for her. Even losing 10-20 teeth was no problem.
- The life span of a dinosaur was over 100 years.
- It is believed that the lifetime of these animals on the planet is 160 million years.
- Dinosaur translates as "terrible lizard".
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Tyrannosaurs ate fresh meat, but did not disdain carrion.
- There were "terrible lizards" weighing more than 60 tons. Really awful.
- Some herbivorous dinosaurs swallowed small stones to improve digestion.
- Dinosaur eggs could have been blue and green, not just white.
- The brain of a Stegosaurus was the size of a dog.
- The dinosaur teeth shown in the photo, according to scientists, were just that.
Summarizing
We got acquainted with what the teeth of dinosaurs were like. Recall the main points:
- The "toothiest" dinosaur had almost 1000 teeth.
- Predatory "terrible lizards" boasted 28-32 teeth.
- The herbivore dinosaur teeth were divided into several types.
- Someherbivores had such weak jaws that they could not even chew the leaves of plants.
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Tyrannosaurs and other predators had concave teeth.
Conclusion
Dinosaurs - those animals, attention to which has not weakened over the years. Scientists are finding more and more remains. And it is not known how many more "terrible lizards" are not familiar to science.
