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Shark teeth are not harder than human teeth

It is well-known that sharks have enamel which consists of the very hard mineral fluoroapatite. So far, no scientist has investigated this with high-end chemical and physical methods." This was now done by Epple and his colleague from the MPIE Professor Dierk Raabe, together with Dr Oleg Prymak and Joachim Enax. The main part of the work was carried out at UDE. The MPIE was the institute, where especially the mechanical measurements took place.

For this study the teeth of shortfin mako shark and tiger shark were literally "taken apart" – for these shark species have different habits of eating their prey. By scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction, the scientists analyzed the order, the size and the nature of the fluoroapatite crystals and determined the hardness of the teeth locally in small areas with mechanical measurements.

Epple and his co-workers showed that the chemical and crystallographic composition of teeth is similar in different shark species, although mako sharks "tear" into the flesh of their prey while tiger sharks "cut" it. The interior consists of the more elastic dentin; the outer part is the highly mineralized enamel.

Thus one might suppose that shark teeth are harder than human teeth. "The human enamel consists of a little softer mineral, hydroxyapatite, which is incidentally also present in bones." By carrying out a comparative study with a human tooth, the scientists discovered something surprisingly new: It is just as robust as that of that fearful animal. "This is due to the special micro- and nanostructure of our teeth.

The research findings are published in the recent issue of the Journal of Structural Biology, 178 (2012). DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsb.2012.03.012.

Ulrike Bohnsack | idw
Further information:
http://www.uni-due.de

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