Scientists discover that komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth

The Komodo dragon, widely known for its venomous fangs and name akin to the mythical creature, was discovered to have another astonishing attribute. 

A study by the King’s College in London found that the Komodo dragon’s razor-sharp teeth are tipped with iron, allowing them to devour almost any meat.

While traces of iron can be found in the teeth of many reptiles, the concentration is usually so low, that it is undetectable to the naked eye. 

The Komodo dragon, however, has iron concentrated along the cutting edges of their teeth– giving them an orange hue. This iron layer acts as a protective coating, keeping the sharpness of their teeth for efficient hunting.

According to the researchers, this discovery could open new doors for understanding how similar extinct creatures, like dinosaurs, lived and hunted. 

“We want to use this similarity to learn more about how carnivorous dinosaurs might have [eaten] and if they used iron in their teeth the same way as the Komodo dragon,” said Dr. Aaron LeBlanc, the study’s lead author and lecturer in Dental Biosciences at King’s College London.

Current technology could not detect whether fossilized dinosaur teeth contained high levels of iron or not.

However, the study did find that larger meat-eating dinosaurs changed the structure of the enamel– the teeth’s outer layer. 

“So, while Komodo dragons have altered the chemistry of their teeth, some dinosaurs altered the structure of their dental enamel to maintain a sharp cutting edge,” Dr. LeBlanc told science news outlet Science Daily.

Komodo dragons are known to be the largest living lizards and are native to the Indonesian islands. It was officially classified as an endangered species by the United Nations’ International Union for Conservation of Nature, as a result of habitat destruction and illegal hunting.