Hello and welcome back to Life’s Biggest
Questions, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey.
The Helicoprion is an ancient sea creature
that lived in the ocean about 270 million
years ago.
It’s believed that the Helicoprion, like
other sharks, managed to survive the Great
Dying that killed off up to 96% of marine
species worldwide, and didn’t go extinct
until 230 million years ago.
But what if this enormous shark was alive
and well to this day?
Let’s explore.
If you want more What If videos, check out
our “Biggest What Ifs” playlist on the
channel.
Now get ready, it’s time to ask the question:
What if the Helicoprion Didn’t Go Extinct?
The Helicoprion is one of the most interesting
and unique sea creatures of all time.
Little is known of its appearance, since the
fossil discoveries have been almost exclusively
of the teeth, with just small samples of cranial
cartilage to give further clues.
This is because its skeleton was made of cartilage,
which caused its body to disintegrate as it
decayed.
Based on its fossilized teeth, it’s believed
to have been very large, with estimates ranging
between 10 and 40 feet in length, but other
than that there’s rather little that can
be inferred about its appearance.
By far the coolest part, that mystified scientists
for years, was its teeth.
The Helicoprion had a spiral set of teeth,
known as a Whorl, spelled WHORL, that it used
to eat its prey.
The resemblance to a circular saw is uncanny,
and something quite unique in the animal kingdom.
This tooth whorl has been the subject of a
good deal of controversy amongst scientists.
Without other fossils to compare and piece
the creature together, it was little more
than a guessing game as to how this whorl
worked.
Some believed that it was inside the mouth,
others claimed it to be located on the tail.
However, recent scans of fossils have suggested
that the whorl was a singular structure that
was fused to the lower jaw, growing into the
jaw, with no teeth on the upper jaw.
This is the current consensus.
It’s also believed, due to the lack of damage
to the teeth, that the Helicoprion fed on
softer prey, like squid and small fish.
It’s believed that the tooth whorl would
slice fish within its mouth, while simultaneously
pushing them down its throat, when the helicoprion
closed its mouth.
Neat.
Okay, so now we know what it was, but what
if it managed to avoid extinction 230 million
years ago?
Would it change the world as we know it?
Well, probably not.
As interesting and awesome as the helicoprion
was, and as cool as it would be to see one
nowadays, its existence wouldn’t change
a whole lot.
It’s likely that given its unique, and frankly,
straight up awesome, looks, the helicoprion
would be a very popular entry in aquariums.
It would, of course, require a good deal of
space due to its size, but the cost of keeping
it would likely be offset by the popularity
of the exhibit, and the resulting money from
spectators.
On the other hand, if it hadn’t gone extinct,
it might not be quite so interesting since
we’d be more used to it.
If we had known about fish with tooth whorls
for so long, people might just view it as
a curiosity, similar to the head of a hammerhead
shark.
Furthermore, the addition of this extra shark
would bring about some changes to ocean ecosystems.
However, we already touched on this idea in
another video.
For more information on that, check out our
video, What if the Megalodon didn’t Go Extinct.
Of course, since the helicoprion was much
more ancient that the Megalodon, these changes
would be further reaching, but would also
be much less predictable.
It’s even possible that if the Helicoprion
was discovered by humans, they might use the
understanding of its teeth to invent the circular
saw earlier than 1813.
This might sound inconsequential, but it would
certainly improve the functioning of sawmills,
and could help civilization to advance even
further.
Since circular saws can be made to cut a number
of different materials, it might even open
up other options for construction that otherwise
would not have been available at the time.
However, it’s rather unlikely that we would
come across these sharks very often, and even
less likely that someone with an inventive
mind would see it, yell “Eureka!” and
go invent the miter saw.
But it’s fun to think about.
And now we return to our question: What if
the Helicoprion Didn’t Go Extinct?
Well, at the end of the day, not a whole lot
would change.
The ocean would be a slightly more dangerous
place, and we might see some strangely mutilated
creatures, but there are already so many things
with teeth under the sea, that this addition,
however unique, likely wouldn’t affect much.
We would see them in aquariums quite often
due to their unique look, but that’s not
a huge change.
It’s vaguely possible that the circular
teeth might inspire an earlier invention of
the circular saw, which would aid the development
of industry, but that’s rather unlikely.
Other than that, an extra shark in the ocean
wouldn’t do a whole lot.
Let’s be real; this video was mostly an
excuse to talk about the helicoprion’s awesome
teeth.
And by golly, I regret nothing.
Those teeth are cool.
Thank you for watching Life’s Biggest Questions,
I hope this was interesting and informative,
and maybe even inspired you to look into it
further on your own.
If you liked this video, please thumbs up
and subscribe to the channel down below.
While you’re down there, let me know what
YOU think would change if the Helicoprion
was real.
Until next time, I’m Ron McKenzie-Lefurgey
with Life’s Biggest Questions, wishing you
the best of luck, on your quest for answers.
