The Komodo dragon has teeth covered with a protective layer of iron.

About the episode

You don’t hug a Komodo dragon. You stay away from it. I think most people know that.

Scientists say this is partly due to their toxic saliva and sharp claws, but don’t forget their teeth.

We already knew they were sharp and curved, but now it has been discovered that they also have a protective layer of iron. Maybe that’s why their teeth are so sharp. And that may also have been the case for some dinosaurs.

The researchers made the discovery when they looked at an existing museum specimen using state-of-the-art technology. They can’t yet say whether dinosaur teeth contained the same amount of iron, or whether the iron was mainly found outside.

This may be due to the fossilization of dinosaur teeth, which changes the chemical composition. What they can actually see is that the structure of the teeth of carnivorous dinosaurs is different at the cutting edges.

The researchers hope that further testing of the Komodo teeth will reveal other signs that could tell us something about the presence of iron in fossil dinosaur teeth. That could tell us something about how these extinct species lived and ate.

Read more about the research here: Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to tear apart their prey.