Pharyngeal teeth are

teeth A tooth ( : teeth) is a hard, calcified structure found in the jaws (or mouths) of many vertebrates and used to break down food. Some animals, particularly carnivores and omnivores, also use teeth to help with capturing or wounding prey, ...

in the

pharyngeal arch The pharyngeal arches, also known as visceral arches'','' are structures seen in the embryonic development of vertebrates that are recognisable precursors for many structures. In fish, the arches are known as the branchial arches, or gill arche ...

of the throat of

cyprinid Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest ...

s, suckers, and a number of other

fish Fish are Aquatic animal, aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack Limb (anatomy), limbs with Digit (anatomy), digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and Chondrichthyes, cartilaginous and bony fish as we ...

species otherwise lacking teeth."Suckers ''Catostomidae''"

Iowa Department of Natural Resources The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (Iowa DNR or IA DNR) is a department/agency of the U.S. state of Iowa formed in 1986, charged with maintaining state parks and forests, protecting the environment of Iowa, and managing energy, fish, wild ...

Many popular aquarium fish such as

goldfish The goldfish (''Carassius auratus'') is a freshwater fish in the family Cyprinidae of order Cypriniformes. It is commonly kept as a pet in indoor aquariums, and is one of the most popular aquarium fish. Goldfish released into the wild have bec ...

and loaches have these structures. Members of the genus ''

Botia ''Botia'' (Indian loaches) is a genus of freshwater fish in the loach family ( Botiidae). It was a large genus with about 20 species. In 2004 Maurice Kottelat proposed in his paper (along with the description of ''Botia kubotai'', see References ...

'' such as clown loaches are known to make distinctive clicking sounds when they grind their pharyngeal teeth. Grunts (family Haemulidae) are so called because of the sound they make when they grind them. Molas are said to be able to produce sound by grinding their long, claw-like pharyngeal teeth. The Chinese high fin banded shark (''Myxocyprinus asiaticus'') (family Catostomidae) has a single row of pharyngeal teeth with comb-like arrangements.''Myxocyprinus asiaticus'', Chinese sucker fish, Filamn.ifm-Geomar.de, 2006
retrieved on: August 21, 2007 The Cape Fear shiner (family

Cyprinidae Cyprinidae is a family of freshwater fish commonly called the carp or minnow family. It includes the carps, the true minnows, and relatives like the barbs and barbels. Cyprinidae is the largest and most diverse fish family and the largest ve ...

) only has pharyngeal teeth, similar to the teeth of other omnivorous shiners. The

redear sunfish The redear sunfish (''Lepomis microlophus''), also known as the shellcracker, Georgia bream, cherry gill, chinquapin, improved bream, rouge ear sunfish and sun perch) is a freshwater fish in the family Centrarchidae and is native to the southeast ...

(family

Centrarchidae Centrarchidae, better known as sunfishes, is a family of freshwater ray-finned fish belonging to the order Perciformes (formerly belonging to the deprecated order Centrarchiformes), native only to North America. There are eight universally ...

) has thick pharyngeal teeth composed of hard, movable plates, which it uses to crush the

exoskeleton An exoskeleton (from Greek ''éxō'' "outer" and ''skeletós'' "skeleton") is an external skeleton that supports and protects an animal's body, in contrast to an internal skeleton ( endoskeleton) in for example, a human. In usage, some of the ...

s of prey. The pharyngeal jaws of the moray eel (family Muraenidae) possess their own set of teeth. The dentary of the ghost knifefish species '' Sternarchogiton nattereri'' (family

Apteronotidae The ghost knifefishes are a family, Apteronotidae, of ray-finned fishes in the order Gymnotiformes. These fish are native to Panama and South America. They inhabit a wide range of freshwater habitats, but more than half the species in the family ...

) has upper and lower pharyngeal tooth plates bearing 9-11 and 7-9 teeth, respectively. The mouth cone ("everted pharynx") of a possible new species of ''Meiopriapulus'', a marine worm in the Priapulida, bears pharyngeal teeth. Fossils of the '' Yunnanozoon'' and '' Haikouella'' possess pharyngeal teeth. The lower pharyngeal bones of

cichlid Cichlids are fish from the family Cichlidae in the order Cichliformes. Cichlids were traditionally classed in a suborder, the Labroidei, along with the wrasses ( Labridae), in the order Perciformes, but molecular studies have contradicted th ...

s also carry specialized teeth which augment their normal mandibular teeth in the breakdown of food.

References

{{diversity of fish Fish anatomy Teeth

See also

References