The animal kingdom shows great diversity in dental structures. When people imagine the animal with the most teeth, they often think of predators like the great white shark or a crocodile. While these animals possess impressive dental arsenals, the true record holder is a small, slow-moving creature. Its dental count surpasses even the largest vertebrates by a factor of hundreds. This tiny marvel uses its microscopic tools for grinding down hard substances, not for tearing flesh.
How Dental Structures Are Defined in the Animal Kingdom
Determining which animal has the most teeth is complex because the definition of a “tooth” varies across different phyla. In vertebrates, a true tooth is a hard, calcified structure, primarily composed of dentine and enamel, with roots anchored into a jawbone. Sharks and mammals, for example, possess these mineralized structures.
However, many invertebrates possess specialized, hardened structures that serve the same mechanical function: acquiring and processing food. These non-mineralized structures, often made of chitin, are functionally identical to teeth but structurally distinct. This difference requires us to broaden our understanding to include these functional equivalents.
The World Record Holder: Teeth Beyond Counting
The undisputed titleholder for the most teeth belongs to the phylum Mollusca, which includes snails, slugs, and limpets. The common garden snail can possess over 20,000 teeth, and some marine limpets carry tens of thousands more. This astronomical count is housed on the radula, a unique feeding organ.
The radula is a flexible, ribbon-like membrane that functions like a microscopic conveyor belt, constantly moving new rows of teeth forward as the old ones wear down. With hundreds of rows being produced continuously, the total number of denticles can exceed 40,000 in a single individual. The teeth of some limpets, like Patella vulgata, are reinforced with the iron-containing mineral goethite, making them the hardest biological material known. This structure allows the mollusk to effectively scrape algae off hard rock surfaces.
Vertebrate Contenders and Other High-Count Specialists
While mollusks dominate the overall count, certain vertebrates and other invertebrates are impressive runners-up. Sharks are famous for polyphyodonty, the ability to continuously replace lost teeth throughout their lives. A large shark may have hundreds of teeth present in multiple rows at one time, and it can shed and replace tens of thousands of teeth over its lifespan.
Among land vertebrates, the common leaf-tailed gecko of Madagascar (Uroplatus fimbriatus) is a surprising contender, possessing an active count that can reach over 300 teeth. Among mammals, the giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) holds the record with up to 100 simple, peg-like teeth used for crushing insects. Certain oceanic dolphins, like the long-snouted spinner dolphin, have a fixed, high count, using up to 260 sharp, conical teeth primarily for grasping slippery prey before swallowing it whole.