Big beasts of the fang club
QUESTION Which animal has the most teeth?
THE South American giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus) has the most teeth of any land mammal with 74.
This isn’t many compared with sharks, who have multiple rows tethered to the skin covering the jaw, allowing them to be moved forward to replace lost teeth.
The great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has 50 teeth in use in the first two rows and 250 replacements waiting in the back. They can go through 20,000 teeth in a lifetime.
The bull shark (Carcharhinus leucas) has 50 rows of teeth, with around 350 teeth at any given time.
Gastropods, such as slugs, snails and limpets, are the toothiest animals.
Their teeth are arranged in rows on the tongue, a ribbon called the radula, which means little scraper.
In a limpet, the radula is 7cm long, a few millimetres wide and contains thousands of teeth. These rasp across a rock to loosen algae and other micro-organisms. Because algae are cemented to rocks, the radula is continually worn away.
A garden snail has 14,000 microscopic teeth at any one time, while marine species can have more than 20,000.
Colourful sea-dwelling umbrella slugs (Umbraculum umbraculum) go through 750,000 teeth in a lifetime.
Liam Twigg, Morecambe, Lancs.
QUESTION J. R. R. Tolkien intended to call his wizard Bladorthin, not Gandalf the Grey. Which other literary characters had a name change?
IN EARLY manuscripts of The hobbit, Tolkien gave the name Gandalf to the leader of the dwarves, a character who became Thorin Oakenshield.
Gandalf, Thorin and other dwarf names such as Gimli were taken from the Dvergatal (Catalogue Of Dwarves), a section of the ancient norse poem Voluspa (Prophecy Of The Seeress).
Tolkien came to regret the creation of this ‘rabble of eddaic [oral poem] named dwarves ... invented in an idle hour’ because he continually had to justify it. The figure of Gandalf was influenced by the norse god Odin in his incarnation as The Wanderer, an old man with one eye, a long white beard, wide-brimmed hat and staff.
Tolkien’s original name for Frodo, the main protagonist in lord Of The rings, was Bingo. According to biographer humphrey Carpenter, this name came from a family of toy koalas owned by Tolkien’s children.
The Dark lord Sauron was originally Thu, the necromancer and lord of Werewolves.
Sandra Wallace, Berkhamsted, Herts.
IN CHARLOTTE’S Web, e. B. White originally named his eight-legged character Charlotte epeira after the Grey Cross spider, or Epeira sclopetaria.
he later realised he’d misidentified her. She was a barn spider, Araneus cavaticus, so became Charlotte A. Cavatica.
John Falstaff, the corpulent and deceitful knight who appears in three Shakespeare plays, was originally called John Oldcastle in henry IV, Part I before descendants of the real Sir John Oldcastle objected.
Scarlett O’hara, the protagonist in Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 novel Gone With The Wind, was almost named Pansy.
In early drafts of Truman Capote’s Breakfast At Tiffany’s, holly Golightly was named Connie Gustafson.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle considered various combinations of names for his sleuth Sherlock holmes including Sherrington hope and Mr Ferrets, and narrator Dr Watson might have been Ormond Sacker.
Simon Hewitt, Market Lavington, Wilts.
QUESTION Have there been technological innovations worse than their predecessors?
HAVING worked in the motor vehicle trade for more than 40 years, the prize must go to keyless ignition.
Once we had the epitome of security and ease of operation of the ignition key with a button to open and close the central door locking and an electronic chip that would recognise the vehicle.
Manufacturers then concluded pressing a button on approaching the vehicle was too much effort. ‘For your convenience’, they decided to manufacture keyless ignition — a technology that thieves can exploit effortlessly.
Add in the problems posed by the keys not having to be secured in the vehicle while it is being used and the complicated, expensive system required for its operation. Bring back our keys!
Car heater controls are also infuriating. These used to be three simple mechanical knobs or levers for fan speed, temperature and distribution that were easily adjustable without needing to look at them while driving.
now, you have to tap into menus on a screen and listen to the beeps as you press, press, press.
Once the car heater controls were controlled by cables, now electronic control boxes, motors and sensors are needed. What could possibly go wrong?
Bob Amiss, Norwich, Norfolk.
MY CANDIDATE would be the quarter turn ceramic tap cartridge.
The old rubber washer would require changing only every decade or so due to a leak. I have had cartridge taps dripping within weeks of fitting.
Brian Sparks, Poole, Dorset.
I’M NOT a fan of the bagless vacuum cleaner. Why go bagless and have the dust blow in your face when you empty the container in the bin outside, or spread in the air if you empty it inside?
Antibiotics are becoming less effective because they are over-prescribed, not taken properly or over-used in agriculture. There is a threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and a possibility that routine, everyday operations will become lifethreatening due to the risk of infection and disease.
Paul Whitehead, Bath.
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