So, you already probably know that teeth are harder than bone and the last part of a body to be broken down but did you know that every person has a set of teeth as unique as their fingerprints?  That’s why teeth can be used to identify someone even if there is no other information available to suggest who they might be.

According to legend, William the Conqueror used to secure his snail mail with sealing wax imprinted with his bitemark.  His teeth were misaligned which created a distinctive pattern which made it easy to determine the authenticity of his letters and documents.  

The average human produces enough saliva in a lifetime to fill two regular sized swimming pools.  Couple this with a sneeze flying out of your mouth at over 600 mph and it’s easy to see why it’s so important to catch sneezes in tissues!

If you’ve ever wondered why mosquito bites can hurt so much it’s because they have 47 teeth.  Humans have 32 teeth with cats having 30, dogs having 42 and pigs having 44.  By far the most impressive is the armadillo which has 104.  Cats (and lions etc) don’t chew their food as their jaws, unlike ours, do not move side to side.  We have more in common with cows when it comes to being able to chew, although we only have one stomach.

Swallows like all modern birds have no teeth at all.  They ‘chew’ their food by swallowing tiny bits of gravel.  The gravel chews the food internally.  The last time that a bird like creature could actually bite was about 90 million years ago.  That’s evolution for you!