Some of the most innocent creatures in the animal kingdom are secretly hiding horrifying sets of teeth. If you’re brave enough to peek inside the mouths of these seemingly normal animals, you’ll discover nightmare gnashers that look like they’ve come straight from the set of a monster movie. Have a browse of the gallery above to discover which of your favourite critters would give your dentist sleepless nights.
Camel
Despite being herbivores, these hardy desert wanderers have a nasty secret hiding behind their gums. Camel teeth can grow to be more than three inches in length, and their jaws are capable of crushing a human skull.
Vampire Fish
It’s pretty obvious how this Amazon-dwelling fish got its nickname. Also known as the payara, this is one animal with teeth that aren’t hard to spot—the fangs protruding from its lower jaw often grow to a length of six inches.
Penguin
Peek inside a penguin’s beak and you’ll discover razor-like spikes lining every inch of the cutesy bird’s mouth. Although they’re not technically teeth, penguins use them in more or less the same way. Even the tongue is covered in these toothy projections—handy when gulping down wriggly, live fish.
Babirusa
Imagine a pig with wildly out-of-control teeth sticking out of its snout, and you’ve more or less dreamed up the babirusa. Its upper canines poke vertically through the mouth until they emerge through the skin of the nose and curve back towards the forehead. If the babirusa fails to grind its tusks down, they’ll continue to grow until they penetrate the pig’s skull. Grim.
Goose
Like penguins and other birds, geese don’t technically have teeth, but their weird, tooth-like bumps are used in a similar manner. That means churning up the goose’s favourite food, grass, is no problem.
Leatherback Turtle
Who doesn’t love turtles? These resilient reptiles spend their long lives swimming extraordinary distances so that they can lay their many eggs on the exact beach where they were born. Incredible creatures. Unfortunately, the insides of their mouths aren’t so beautiful. Prize one open and you’ll discover that it’s filled with hundreds of nasty, toothy spines called papillae, designed to ensnare slippery jellyfish and other slimy marine morsels.
Silver Lamprey
Silver lampreys are terrifying parasitic fish that lurk in lakes and rivers around America, using their unnerving tooth-covered oral discs to attach themselves to other fish and bore into their skin. They can remain attached for a long time, hungrily gorging on the blood of their hosts.