Amazing stuff! Human teeth could use some iron too and better cavity prevention! Who needs a knife if you have iron teeth? Just kidding!
"... Komodo dragons take down everything from lizards to horses, slicing and dicing their meals like a celebrity chef. The key may be iron itself, a new study finds. An analysis of Komodo dragon teeth reveals a clear line of orange along their serrated edges, indicative of iron, researchers report this week in Nature Ecology and Evolution. ...
the iron adds a protective coating to the dragons’ teeth, allowing them to shake and shred their prey more effectively. His team also found orange teeth in American alligators and saltwater crocodiles, while other teams have noted coloration in beavers, shrews, and even some fish. ..."
From the abstract:
"Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) are the largest extant predatory lizards and their ziphodont (serrated, curved and blade-shaped) teeth make them valuable analogues for studying tooth structure, function and comparing with extinct ziphodont taxa, such as theropod dinosaurs. Like other ziphodont reptiles, V. komodoensis teeth possess only a thin coating of enamel that is nevertheless able to cope with the demands of their puncture–pull feeding. Using advanced chemical and structural imaging, we reveal that V. komodoensis teeth possess a unique adaptation for maintaining their cutting edges: orange, iron-enriched coatings on their tooth serrations and tips. Comparisons with other extant varanids and crocodylians revealed that iron sequestration is probably widespread in reptile enamels but it is most striking in V. komodoensis and closely related ziphodont species, suggesting a crucial role in supporting serrated teeth. Unfortunately, fossilization confounds our ability to consistently detect similar iron coatings in fossil teeth, including those of ziphodont dinosaurs. However, unlike V. komodoensis, some theropods possessed specialized enamel along their tooth serrations, resembling the wavy enamel found in herbivorous hadrosaurid dinosaurs. These discoveries illustrate unexpected and disparate specializations for maintaining ziphodont teeth in predatory reptiles."
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