Whale Sharks Have Teeth Where You Might Not Expect Them

It's easy to think of the whale shark as harmless when your feet are safely planted in the sand. Perhaps for some this thought could still hold water when scuba diving up close and watching the massive fish devour plankton like a vacuum cleaner sucking in cereal. But, a closer look at one of their massive eyeballs (pictured above) and the knowledge that it could contain more than a jaw-dropping 3,000 leaf-shaped molars is something else entirely (via PLOS One).

An extensive 2020 study led by renowned researcher Taketeru Tomita and several colleagues yielded shocking results when the bodies of live and dead whale sharks were thoroughly examined. As it turns out, whale sharks possess the unique attribute of eye armor which comes in the form of thousands of tiny teeth. According to Smithsonian Magazine, these jagged little teeth, scientifically referred to as "eye denticles" protect the sharks' vision in lieu of eyelids, which the whale shark mysteriously lacks. Talk about keeping your eyes peeled.