Wildlife in Lubbock Texas are “baffled” by this fish that has teeth resembling those of a human that does not practice good dental hygiene.
Link (Thanks, Kim!)
Reader comments:
Mike Bishop says:
The fish with human teeth is most likely a sheepshead. We have these all over the place in West Palm Beach where I live. They’ll freak you out the first time you catch one and see those human-looking teeth. Check out this article and photo, taken by someone in Texas interestingly enough.
Brett Burton says:
Contrary to what Mike Bishop said, I don’t think the fish is a sheepshead. it looks a lot more like a pacu, which is what the article said. Here’s a good image of a pacu.
You’ll notice that the pacu’s face is wider and only the bottom teeth are visible, just like fish found in Texas.
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman says:
Yes, this is a pacu (Piaractus brachypomus). As a strange but infrequent member of the exotic pet fish trade, the pacu, like the piranha, are sometimes dumped in ponds and similar locations. Articles about “piranhas” in the neighborhood stream or swimming hole are an annual exercise for those of us that watch such matters closely, to separate the truly unusual (a sighting of a Lake Monster) from the mundane (another pacu or piranha caught).
It is easy to google (pacu teeth) several photos that look like the one posted, and see a comparable pix here
The media is calling them “human teeth” but they only appear that way. They are, however, merely pacu teeth, which have a Homo sapiens molar-like appearance to human reporters.