denticle

Recirculation patterns, highest velocity and vorticity developed directly on top of the denticles and in spaces between the denticles.

But the suction cups wouldn’t stick to the rays’ mucus-covered dermal denticles—tooth-like scales that cover the bodies of sharks and rays.

They analyzed the fossils’ rostral denticles, the spikes that jut from the sides of a sawfish’s snout to aid in foraging and self-defense.

I wanted to reach out and touch its back, which was covered in denticles, V-shaped scales that were like teeth all over the shark’s body.

But as the structure—and roughness—of dermal denticles varies around a shark’s body, it may also be a better place to scratch.