The Ragged Tooth's Smile

Long ago, in primordial seas, old shark species swam uninhibited.

They used to all have similar teeth; broad triangles like today's great whites.

But today, we see different kinds of teeth. And few are more distinct than those sharply jutting from the mouth of a ragged tooth shark.

But how did their teeth go from broad triangles to sharp, jagged shards?

Now that is a whale of a tale...

Long ago, in those primordial seas, ragged tooth sharks - then known among other sharks only as sand tigers - roamed the ocean edges searching for their food.

But the seas were changing, and their usual prey became scarce.

It forced them out into deeper water to look for more food...

Instead, they found more trouble than they bargained for.

The sand tigers got their first taste of large whales from the carcasses of those who couldn't sustain themselves anymore. The entire ecosystem was under threat. It wasn't just the sharks struggling to find good amounts of food at the top of the food chain; it was the whole damn chain down to the smallest of organisms. So, they gorged themselves on the rare carcasses at the water's surface.

One day, decades into this system-wide famine, a desperate shiver of sand tiger sharks tailed a large, injured whale. The mammal appeared to have suffered a broken back, judging by the strange angle it moved at and how it held its tail at as it swam.

Despite the size of the whale in comparison to the sharks, it was a youngster. The shiver discussed what may have happened to his back, and determined it appeared to be an injury from a larger whale. It was possible that the young whale had been too close to his mother when a grown male attempted to mate with her; the action was known to cause a lot of thrashing in open water, and a good swat from a grown male's fluke could have been enough to break the younger animal's back.

The shiver followed, monitoring the young whale's progress. The wound was healing, it seemed; the injury appeared to be weeks old. But it was still broken, and the whale let out pained sounds as it swam. The rest of the pod was well ahead of him; they couldn't wait for the straggler.

He was a good target. But dare they attack him while he lived?

The first, experimental bite laid upon the whale was a cautious nip to his right flipper. Once his blood hit the water, however, the ravenous shiver sprang into a frenzy. They all began to bite the whale, latching onto his flippers and fluke.

Together, they tried to drag the mammal into the depths; to drown him. But he fought against the group, using his larger body to his advantage. He twisted, and thrashed, and bucked.

But his back was broken...

Soon, pain and fatigue brought the whale to rest. The sharks continued trying to drag him down, but even with their superior numbers, they couldn't pull him into the depths easily. It was a timely struggle.

For a time, the whale remained mostly immobile, though he called desperately to his pod. But no return calls came...

The youngster was on his own.

The sharks almost had him where they wanted him. If they brought him much lower, he wouldn't be able to swim quickly enough to the surface to breathe. Maybe if he wasn't hurt, but not with his injury impeding his movements.

It was then that the young whale made a final, desperate attempt at freedom; he redoubled his previous efforts, thrashing and rolling for his very life despite the agony it caused him. This was life or death.

And, this time, the whale was successful. The force with which the whale fought back threw most of the shiver. He made sure to wallop the lot with his fluke as best he could.

Both actions were carried out with such intensity, the sharks' teeth all shattered into jagged blades jutting from their mouths in a wicked, living conveyor-belt.

The whale swam off - slowly and in pain - to live out his days. However many he had left, anyway.

And the sand tigers returned to eating fish in the shallows with their broken smiles; now known as the ragged tooth sharks.