Jaws

I read in the newspaper the other day, that a man was arrested for trying to smuggle shark teeth into India. Import of shark teeth is prohibited in the country under the Wild Life Protection  Act of 1972.

But why do people try to smuggle shark teeth? What makes shark teeth so precious?

Shark teeth are not just teeth. They are fossils. Sharks do not have any bones in their body. Their skeleton is made up of a softer tissue called cartilage. When a shark dies, the cartilage decays along with the rest of the body. What remains of dead sharks are only the teeth. These teeth get covered with minerals and sand, and hence do not get corroded. The get fossilized. It takes about 10 000 years for the fossils to get formed.

These fossilized teeth lying on the sea bed often get washed ashore by the waves. They can be spotted by people in the sands at low tide.

During the renaissance period, people mistook these shark teeth for fossilized tongues of dragons and snakes. They were used to cure snake bite. Due to this quality, people considered them lucky, and shark teeth came to used as charms for good luck.

Now that shark teeth have been recognized for what they are, they have become precious commodities and collector’s items. The teeth of the giant pre-historic shark, the Megalodon are the most valuable of all. They can measure upto 7 inches and weigh more than a pound.

Fossilized shark teeth appear brown or blue because of minerals deposited on them. Shark teeth are commonly found on beaches of California. Sharks loose one tooth per week, on an average, while biting off prey. This is because their teeth are not attached to roots like the human teeth. And once a tooth falls off, it is immediately replaced by the one behind it. Yes, sharks have multiple rows of teeth.

Further reading:

1. http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/sharks/anatomy/Teeth.shtml
2. http://www.veniceflorida.com/shark.htm