Scientists Discover Komodo Dragons Have Iron Coated Teeth
They are the first reptile discovered with this metal in their teeth, but they aren't the only ones
Hiya!
I find it so cool how Nature comes up with so many ways to use the same design for different things. Take teeth, for example. Our species is just one of a massive number of animals on our planet that possess teeth — and each species’ set is entirely unique with various rows, shapes, sizes, and materials.
We, humans, get two sets of natural teeth in our lifetime. One set grows in, then falls out, during childhood and is replaced by our adult teeth. But many animals like the Komodo dragon, for example, and other reptiles basically shed teeth like a snake sheds skin, going through several sets of teeth in a lifetime. Now, curiosity led researchers to discover something new about Komodo dragon teeth — they’re lined with iron.
Komodo Dragons
If you don’t know, Komodo dragons, which can grow up to 10 feet (3.13 meters) long, are the largest living reptile on Earth. These endangered giant lizards can live for thirty years and dwell exclusively on Indonesia’s islands.
Komodo dragons are carnivorous, meaning they eat meat and consume everything from rodents to deer, pigs, and water buffalo, thanks to their 60 serrated teeth. Beyond being like a steak knife, the chompers of a Komodo dragon are triangularly shaped, and each point curves back into the lizard’s mouth — all the better to rip off and swallow large chunks of meat.
Incredibly, it’s not just the serrated edges and curved points of Komodo dragon teeth that make them fearsome — they also have a venomous bite that stuns their prey before tearing it apart.
Remind You of Anything?
What makes Komodo dragon teeth and other giant lizards' teeth especially interesting is how similar they are to fossils of dinosaur teeth. Kirstin Brink, a paleontologist at the University of Manitoba who studies teeth, explained to Meghan Bartels of Scientific American:
“When we’re studying fossils, especially when we’re trying to interpret behaviors which we can no longer observe because the animals are dead, we have to look to modern analogues.”
That’s precisely what Aaron LeBlanc, a paleontologist at King’s College London, was doing when he discovered something incredible. LeBlanc told Bartels that he was studying giant lizards’ teeth because their sizes and shapes reminded him of dinosaur teeth. LeBlanc told Alice Sun of National Geographic:
“When a dinosaur tooth has been buried underground for millions of years, it undergoes a lot of changes chemically as well as mechanically, so it's really hard to get anything meaningful out of it.”
Meanwhile, the Komodo dragon, a living descendant of dinosaurs, gives scientists an idea of what dinosaur teeth may have been like, including the size, shape, and other traits. So, LeBlanc was analyzing Komodo dragon teeth held in museums when he noticed an orange tint along the teeth’s serrated edges. He told Bartels:
“Every now and then, I would see this sort of orange discoloration to the outer layer of the teeth. I honestly probably saw it three, four times and just dismissed it as staining from feeding.”
Considering there’s iron in blood, and that Komodo dragons are carnivorous, LeBlanc’s assumption that the orange coloring was bloodstain seems reasonable. But then he found the orange hue along the serration and tip of Komodo dragon teeth before the animal ate anything, which he thought was curious and led him to share his observations with other scientists.
Curiosity Led Research
LeBlanc enlisted other scientists and museum curators to inspect Komodo dragon teeth and discovered they all had an orange tint. He then followed his curiosity about what might be causing the unusual coloring and its purpose and published what he found on July 24, 2024, in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
The researchers analyzed the teeth to determine the chemical components of the orange coloring and learned that it was iron. The orange hue is the color iron turns when it oxidizes, like rust.
Some fish and salamanders, along with a handful of mostly gnawing mammals including beavers, rats, and shrews, also have metals in their teeth, but this was the first time the presence of iron has been discovered on reptile teeth — which surprised scientists since they thought reptile teeth wouldn’t have such special adaptations considering how often they’re replaced.
The researchers wanted to know more, so they used high-powered microscopes to better see how the iron was situated within the teeth and found the metal lies under a thin enamel layer. LeBlanc explained to Sun that,
“We saw it's actually a coating on top of the enamel, sort of like icing on the top of the cake.”
The serrated edges and curved points of Komodo dragon teeth are strategic evolutionary adaptations that allow the animal to tear off large chunks of meat from their prey. Similarly, LeBlanc found the presence of iron in the teeth also has a purpose.
LeBlanc told Bartels that one clue is the precise location of the iron on the teeth, which traces the serration lines running along the edges on the front and back of each tooth. This placement reinforces the teeth’ ability to puncture a prey and tear it apart without chipping or breaking. A paleontologist at Daemen University in New York and the study’s co-author, Domenic D’Amore, told Sun:
“It's interesting that the serrations have the majority of the iron, which suggests that they're reinforced because they're particularly important for shearing apart prey.”
Encouraged by finding iron in Komodo dragon teeth, LeBlanc and his colleagues wondered whether other living reptiles and dinosaurs have similar reinforcements in their teeth.
The team expanded their search and discovered a few species of monitor lizards, and some crocodiles have the adaption but to a lesser extent. Identifying iron in dinosaur teeth is tricky though, because they’re typically saturated in iron during fossilization thanks to the abundance of iron on Earth’s surface.
LeBlanc explained to Bartel:
“Iron is probably the worst thing to look at in fossil reptile teeth. If you bury a dinosaur tooth in the ground for tens of millions of years, iron will eventually seep into every nook and cranny.”
Still, he and his team believe their research should be enough for future scientists to examine the teeth of living reptiles and dinosaurs for unexpected dental adaptations and not be too quick to dismiss abnormalities like he did at first.
Perspective Shift
We, humans, pride ourselves on our unique and astounding creativity, but Nature is even more creative — and more efficient, resourceful, and, well, ingenious. The more we learn about our planet and everything on it, the more apparent this Truth is. It’s clear now that Nature is our greatest teacher.
If you look at the vast amount of recent research, much of which challenges our long-held assumptions, you can see threads of patterns weaving through it.
For instance, when Nature finds something that works, it repeats it again and again. That’s why tree branches, water channels, and the veins in our lungs resemble each other. It’s also why the Fibonacci sequence spirals are quite literally everywhere, from a chameleon’s tail and plant formation to storm clouds.
Nature is also a brilliant chemist, as evidenced by the diverse ways it uses elements. Iron is the 26th element on the periodic table and makes up 5.6 percent of Earth’s crust; it’s one of the most abundant metals on the planet.
Interestingly, iron is a crucial element for our survival. Iron is essential in producing hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells that helps carry oxygen throughout our body. Yet, our bodies do not create iron on their own; it is only absorbed from what we eat.
Nature has found countless ways to use iron, and finding it coated on the Komodo dragon’s teeth is simply yet another example of Nature’s creativity.
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How interesting!