Bang Goes the Gators
After almost dying on spirit airlines we made it! Our group finally made it to the Everglades where we got to see alligators, snakes and a plethora of fish. As we all know, gators have powerful jaws with powerful muscles. These jaws can snap shut at about 3,000 pounds of pressure per square inch!!! Whoaaaaaa that's a lot of pressure. What a lot of people don't know is that their teeth are actually hollow. These hollow teeth used to allow soldiers to measure the amount of gunpowder they would need; then they would stash it in the tooth and keep it for later. They ended up making necklaces and bracelets to hold this! While the Gators still live today, the method of using their teeth for holding gunpowder is not as popular.
Gator teeth are actually quite impressive like shark teeth. As humans, we only have our adult and baby teeth. Basically, human teeth are dull. Unlike sharks that have a conveyor belt of teeth, gators hollow teeth can actually have another tooth inside of it. If the outer tooth falls off or breaks off that allows for the new tooth to already be up and ready to catch and devour its prey.
While gator teeth have been packed with gunpowder, they have also been used as jewelry. In fact, they have been used for necklaces and bracelets and still are around. While they might not have a gold dip to them now, you can find them at certain stores near alligator farms. While many people who own these teeth don't use them for gun powder, many may use it for other things such as holding sand from certain areas and towns to holding the ashes of their loved ones around their necks.
All in all, gators are quite impressive animals that are for granted. Who would have thought that with all their attacks and crunching on bones that their teeth were hollow? Who would have known that hollow teeth could withstand so much pressure? I certainly didn't and maybe you didn't too...but guess what... "NOW YOU KNOW"-Bill Nye the Science Guy
https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/american-alligator
https://www.evergladesholidaypark.com/difference-gators-crocodiles/
I didn't know that Gator teeth were used in that way, that's really interesting. Hopefully we see a bunch more gators in the future.
ReplyDeleteI had the same thought when I read this passage, of soldiers using the Alligator teeth to measure out gun powder. My only question would be how did they compensate for different sized teeth? Either way it is an interesting fact to learn.
ReplyDeleteIts crazy that their teeth used to be used to hold gunpowder for soldiers, but its even crazier to think that their teeth are hollow but yet they can do so much damage. Its also interesting that their teeth grow in underneath one another, so as soon as they loose a tooth they already have one there and they don't have to wait for it to grow a new one.
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