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mendax writes:

The New York Times published an article intended for Halloween time (yes, a little late now) that talks about the evolutionary development of a vampire's favorite anatomical bit: the fang.

In honor of Halloween, let's take a moment to appreciate fangs — and other sharp, pointed weapons animals use to capture, bite, hold, injure and paralyze their dinner guests and rivals.

Fanged snakes can strike their prey to inject venom at speeds of about 7 miles per hour. Some mantis shrimp spear their victims with harpoon-like spines on the ends of their limbs up to 16 m.p.h. And a trap jaw ant can slam its spring-loaded mouth shut over its target at speeds of more than 130 m.p.h. There's even a snail that shoots out a venomous tooth to stun fish.

Many creatures — monkeys, bats, jellyfish and if vampires were real, those too — carry specialized weapon systems that allow them to survive by puncturing other animals. But how?

To find out, Philip Anderson, a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, started at the most basic level: physical mechanics. He knew the shape and function of teeth mattered for how well an animal could pierce another, but he wondered: "Are there ground rules that all of these animals had to follow in different ways to deal with these common challenges?"

Bite someone you love. Are hickeys still out of fashion?

Original Submission