You’re probably thinking of the Great White. Everyone does. That iconic, serrated grin has fueled nightmares since the seventies, but if we’re talking about fish with lots of teeth, the shark is actually kind of a lightweight. Sure, a Great White might sport 3,000 teeth at once, but that’s nothing compared to some of the freaks of nature lurking in the muck of riverbeds or the crushing darkness of the midnight zone. Evolution doesn't care about looking pretty for a camera. It cares about grip.
I've spent way too much time looking at ichthyology records and talking to people who study marine biology, and the consensus is basically this: teeth are cheap. For a fish, growing a tooth is like us growing a fingernail. They lose them, they grow them back, and some species have decided that the best way to survive is to just turn their entire mouth—and sometimes their throat—into a literal pincushion.
It’s not just about the count, though. It’s about the sheer variety of dental hardware. We’re talking about fish with human-looking molars, fish with teeth on their tongues, and fish whose teeth are so big they can’t even close their mouths.
The numbers game: Who actually has the most?
If you want to win a bar bet about which animal has the most teeth, don’t say a shark. You’d be wrong. Technically, the award for the most teeth in the animal kingdom often goes to slugs (thousands of microscopic radular teeth), but in the world of fish, the Catfish is a serious heavyweight.
Specifically, look at the larger species like the Blue Catfish or the Wels Catfish. They don't have a few dozen sharp spikes. Instead, they have "villiform" teeth. These are thousands of tiny, recessed teeth that feel like heavy-duty Velcro or a coarse rasp. They aren't meant to slice you open; they’re meant to make sure that once a slippery prey item is in that mouth, it is never, ever getting out. If you’ve ever gone "noodling" (which is a wild choice, honestly), you know exactly what that feels like. It’s a sandpaper grip that can shred skin just by holding on.
Then you have the Ghost Shark—or the Chimaera. These aren't technically sharks, but they're cousins. They don't have individual teeth that fall out. They have "tooth plates." It’s basically like having a permanent, ever-growing beak made of dense dental tissue. It’s a different strategy for the same problem: breaking things that don’t want to be broken.
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The nightmare fuel: Fangtooth and Dragonfish
Deep-sea fish are basically just biological excuses for teeth to exist. Take the Fangtooth (Anoplogaster cornuta). This fish has the largest teeth of any marine animal relative to its body size. They are so long that the fish has evolved special sockets in its brain... yes, its brain... to house the bottom teeth when its mouth is closed. It literally tucks its fangs into its head so it doesn't impale its own upper jaw.
It looks terrifying. Truly. But the reality is it’s only about six inches long. You could hold it in your hand—though you probably shouldn't.
Then there's the Sloane’s Viperfish. This thing is a biological glitch. Its teeth are so long they overlap the jaws, sitting outside the mouth like a cage. It uses these clear, needle-like fangs to impale prey in the pitch black. The Viperfish can also unhinge its jaw and expand its stomach to swallow things up to half its own size. Imagine if you could eat a medium-sized dog in one sitting. That’s the Viperfish lifestyle.
Why so many teeth?
- Replacement Cycles: Sharks use a "conveyor belt" system. When one tooth breaks, another moves forward. Some sharks go through 30,000 teeth in a lifetime.
- Prey Retention: Fish like the Northern Pike or Muskellunge have backward-pointing teeth. The more a prey fish struggles, the deeper it gets pushed toward the gullet.
- Crushing Power: Fish like the Sheepshead (which we’ll get to, because it’s weird) need teeth to crush barnacles and crabs.
The fish with "human" teeth
This is the part where things get genuinely unsettling. If you’ve ever seen a photo of a Sheepshead or a Pacu, you’ve probably done a double-take. They don't have the sharp, triangular teeth we associate with predators. Instead, they have incisors and molars that look suspiciously like yours and mine.
The Sheepshead (Archosargus probatocephalus) uses these to grind up shrimp, clams, and even the occasional unlucky crab. They have several rows of these flat, blunt teeth on the roof and floor of their mouths. It’s a specialized tool for a specialized diet. They are incredibly common along the Atlantic coast of the US, and every summer, some tourist catches one and loses their mind because they think they found a mutant. It’s not a mutant. It’s just an animal that’s really good at eating crunchy stuff.
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The Pacu is the Sheepshead’s freshwater cousin from South America. There were those viral stories a few years back about them being "testicle eaters," but honestly? That was mostly sensationalist nonsense. They use those human-like teeth to crack nuts and seeds that fall into the Amazon. They’re basically the squirrels of the river.
The Great White isn't even the toothiest shark
We have to talk about the Frilled Shark. It’s a "living fossil" that looks more like an eel than a shark. Inside its mouth are about 300 teeth, but they aren't the broad blades of a Tiger shark. They are trident-shaped. Each tooth has three needles pointing backward.
Because the Frilled Shark lives in the deep ocean where food is scarce, it cannot afford to let a meal escape. Those 300 trident teeth create a literal forest of spikes. Anything that enters that mouth is snagged on 900 individual points of contact. It’s efficient. It’s brutal. It’s also incredibly rare to see one alive.
Pharyngeal teeth: The teeth you can't see
Here is a fun fact to ruin your day: Many fish have a second set of jaws in their throat. These are called pharyngeal teeth.
Take the Moray Eel. Most fish use suction to swallow. They open their mouths, water rushes in, and the prey goes down. Morays can’t do that effectively because they live in tight crevices. So, they evolved a second set of "alien" jaws. Once the front teeth grab you, the pharyngeal jaws shoot forward from the throat, grab the prey, and drag it down into the esophagus. It’s exactly like the creature from the movie Alien.
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Even your common Goldfish or Carp has pharyngeal teeth. They don't have teeth in their "lips," but they have specialized bones in their throat that grind up food. If you listen closely when a large Carp is feeding, you can sometimes hear the crunching sound of those throat teeth working.
Practical takeaways for the curious
If you’re out fishing or just exploring tide pools, knowing your fish with lots of teeth is actually a safety issue.
- Never "lip" a fish you don't recognize. Bass are safe to grab by the lower jaw. A Walleye or a Pickerel will send you to the emergency room for stitches. Even "tootheless" looking fish like Catfish can deglove a finger with their villiform pads if they thrash.
- Watch out for the operculum. Some fish have teeth-like serrations on their gill covers. Even if you avoid the mouth, the "ears" can slice you open.
- Check the "Vomer." If you're trying to identify a trout or salmon, look at the roof of the mouth (the vomerine bone). The pattern of teeth there is often the only way to tell certain species apart.
The ocean is a giant, wet gears-and-grinders factory. Whether it's the 15,000 tiny needles in a Catfish's mouth or the terrifying transparent fangs of a Viperfish, teeth are the primary way fish interact with their world. They don't have hands. They have mouths. And usually, those mouths are very, very full.
If you want to see these things in person without getting bitten, your best bet is a local aquarium with a dedicated "Oddities" or "Deep Sea" exhibit. Seeing a Sheepshead’s grin in person is a lot different than seeing it on a screen—it’s a reminder that nature has a very strange sense of humor.
For those actually planning to handle toothy fish, invest in a pair of long-nose pliers and some cut-resistant gloves. It only takes one flick of a Pike’s head to realize that those hundreds of tiny teeth are much sharper than they look in the photos. Be careful out there.