X-rays reveal the biting truth about parrotfish teeth: Interwoven crystal structure is key to coral-crunching ability
November 15, 2017
So, you thought the fictional people-eating great white shark in the film "Jaws" had a powerful bite.
But don't overlook the mighty mouth of the parrotfish - its hardy teeth allow it to chomp on coral all day long, ultimately chewing and grinding it up through digestion into fine sand. That's right: Its "beak" creates beaches. A single parrotfish can produce hundreds of pounds of sand each year.
Now, a study by scientists - including those at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) - has revealed a chain mail-like woven microstructure that gives parrotfish teeth their remarkable bite and resilience.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-11-x-rays-reveal-truth-parrotfish-teeth.html#jCp
