🤯 Did You Know (click to read)
Megamouth sharks possess over 50 rows of small teeth in each jaw, though they rarely use them for active predation.
Despite reaching lengths over 5 meters, the megamouth shark has rows of tiny, hook-shaped teeth that are only a few millimeters long. These teeth are functionally insignificant for hunting large prey because the shark feeds primarily on plankton and soft-bodied organisms.
💥 Impact (click to read)
The contrast is biologically jarring: a body the size of a small truck equipped with teeth no larger than grains of rice. Instead of slicing flesh like apex predators such as the great white, the megamouth filters microscopic life from seawater.
This extreme mismatch between body size and tooth size overturns common assumptions about shark evolution. Gigantism in this lineage did not lead to bigger weapons, but to energy-efficient filtration systems that exploit the smallest organisms in the ocean.
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