In the world of fauna, there is at least one character who is ready to make even the most battered dentist scared.
Let’s outline the situation. You come to the doctor, sit in a chair, open your mouth, and there is a meter-long chainsaw with 190 teeth of blades, wrapped in 3 turns. And then you look at the patient’s name, and you freak out that Helicopryon has come to see you!
Bessonov, a local historian of the Perm province, turned out to be the dentist who saw such a spectacle. In 1897, he found a spiral-shaped fossil suspiciously reminiscent of a cephalopod shell. So the scientist would have thought if the teeth had not protruded from the “shell”!
Another “dentist” – paleontologist Karpinsky, announced to the whole world that it was not a toothed snail, but a shark-like Paleozoic fish Helicopryon, which lived and died forever 300 million years ago.
But where was the shark’s toothed spiral? Where the poor fish was not only attached: on the nose, tail, and even on the back. There was no end to the agony of paleontologists, until in the 30s they found the closest brother of our mysterious person – sarkopryon. He was also a big fan of building tools. He wore his carpentry on the lower jaw. And then, as they say, the mosaic was formed.
The same sarkopryon. Compared to our hero, he is more studied, but his spiral is not suitable for Helikopryon’s spiral.
…or not? Disputes about where and how the jaw rolled into a ram’s horn was located continues to this day. Only in 2008 a more or less working hypothesis was found. The spiral is thought to be the pharyngeal teeth. That is, they were inside the mouth, they were not visible until the fish opened its mouth properly.
The complete remains of helicopryon have not yet been found, so the appearance of this mysterious nonsense is based only on guesswork. But the laws of hydrodynamics and healthy teeth, without wear and tear, at the very least, confirm the hypothesis of 2008.
And it would seem that this torpedo with a formidable weapon at the ready like a maniac with a chainsaw was supposed to kill everyone and everything! But appearances are deceiving. Helicopryon’s mouth could not grind solid food. Therefore, the shark ate soft-bodied squid and shrimp.
- Well, why then a chainsaw? – we ask, and scientists will only vaguely shrug their shoulders. Digging mollusks with such a device from the bottom of the sea will not work. But shredding tentacles and squid carcasses is always welcome.
But these are all hypotheses. There is only one conclusion: dentists are worthless of paleontologists, and pathologists are even worse. After all, we also do not know the reason for the extinction of this species. In general, not a shark – but one continuous mystery!
