Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea

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a b c Evans Ogden, Lesley (6 January 2016). "Elusive narwhal babies spotted gathering at Canadian nursery". New Scientist . Retrieved 6 September 2016. A deep-diving cetacean in the odontocete family (which means “toothed whales”), narwhals live in cold Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. They’re highly adapted to living in areas almost completely covered with sea ice. Narwhals are among the only whales that live in areas with such dense sea ice cover for up to six months each winter. Food for narwhals includes halibut from Greenland, cod from the Arctic and Antarctic, squid, and shrimp from the open ocean. Ice floe edges and open water in summer are where they feed. 10. How Long Do Narwhals Live? Perhaps narwhals are the beetles of the whale world. Choosing between a sensory organ and a weapon may be a false choice. Perhaps male narwhals do go into battle, but they size up their opponents first.

Narwhals live in groups, usually pods of three to eight members but sometimes up to about 20 members, according to the MarineBio Conservation Society. The smaller pods tend to come together and form large herds during the migratory season. Also, there aren’t a lot of people around. When disturbed by humans, narwhals dive for cover. Because they’re still being hunted by tribes in the Arctic, they’re in far greater danger than we are during an encounter. 6. Where Do Narwhals Live? But why should a whale grow a tusk? Or, more precisely, how did such a freakish tooth evolve in this one species after its ancestors branched off from whales with ordinary teeth?

2. Closest relatives

During growth, the narwhal accumulates metals in its internal organs. One study found that various metals are lightly concentrated in the blubber and densely concentrated in the liver and the kidneys. Zinc and cadmium are found in higher concentration in the kidney compared to the liver; the inverse is true for lead, copper and mercury. Certain metals were correlated with size and sex. During growth, it was found that mercury accumulated in the liver, kidney, musculature, and blubber, and cadmium also settled in the blubber. [60] The Danish throne is guarded by silver lions, and the chair has spiraling ivory “unicorn horns” on the frame. Two narwhal tusks are said to have paid off Austrian Kaiser Karl V’s national debt. 2. How Deep Can Narwhals Dive? The white whales, dolphins (Delphinidae) and porpoises (Phocoenidae) together comprise the superfamily Delphinoidea, which are of likely monophyletic origin. Genetic evidence suggests the porpoises are more closely related to the white whales and that these two families constitute a separate clade which diverged from the rest of Delphinoidea within the past 11million years. [13] Fossil evidence shows that ancient white whales lived in tropical waters. They may have migrated to Arctic and sub-Arctic waters in response to changes in the marine food chain during the Pliocene. [14] Description Complete skeleton at the Zoological Museum of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

But some researchers were not persuaded by the conclusions that Nweeia and his colleagues drew from all that data. Their biggest critic was Kristin Laidre of the University of Washington. For starters, she notes that having sensitive teeth is not unique to narwhals. “When you eat ice cream, your teeth hurt, and the nerves in your teeth tell your brain you’re eating something cold,” she told me. Nielsen M.R. (2009). "Is climate change causing the increasing narwhal ( Monodon monoceros) catches in Smith Sound, Greenland?". Polar Research. 28 (2): 238–245. Bibcode: 2009PolRe..28..238N. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-8369.2009.00106.x. S2CID 140711336. Close up, the whales are easily identifiable. Belugas are pure white and tend to have a lot of loose skin and blubber that forms ridges and flaps around their bodies, according to a 2012 paper from the journal Marine Mammal Science. Narwhals, on the other hand, are sleeker. When touched, Laidre said, “they’re very smooth, and rubbery — like a hard wet innertube.” When Frobisher returned to England, he presented the horn to Queen Elizabeth, who commanded that it be kept with the crown jewels.Jorge Vélez-Juarbe & Nicholas D. Pyenson (2012). " Bohaskaia monodontoides, a new monodontid (Cetacea, Odontoceti, Delphinoidea) from the Pliocene of the western North Atlantic Ocean". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (2): 476–484. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2012.641705. S2CID 55606151. Those short ridges make narwhals especially tough to spot, according to Laidre. When she goes looking for narwhals, the best days are cold, clear and still. But a dark, silvery or white-splotched whale with no dorsal fin surfacing gently in a field of dark water and white ice is easy to overlook, she said. Even their breath can be hard to spot: while many whales surface with a burst of condensing air that looks like a sudden, tall cloud, narwhals release a subtle puff of air. Why do narwhals have tusks? A study from 2014 , showed that the surface of the tusk is actually covered in open pores leading to a central pulp core full of thousands of exposed nerve endings and blood vessels. Skovrind, M.l; Castruita, J. A. S.; Haile, J.; etal. (2019). "Hybridization between two high Arctic cetaceans confirmed by genomic analysis". Scientific Reports. 9 (1): 7729. Bibcode: 2019NatSR...9.7729S. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-44038-0. PMC 6586676. PMID 31221994. Taxonomy and etymology Illustration of a narwhal (lower image) and a beluga (upper image), its closest related species