The Underwater Unicorn

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Narwhals, or “unicorns of the sea”, are mysterious animals that are not widely known. The narwhal’s scientific name, Monodon Monoceros, is Latin for “one tooth, one horn”. Norwegians call it a “corpse whale”, because of the mottled coloration that suggests a bloated corpse. Narwhals are in the white whale family, along with the beluga whale, but are actually covered with spots of gray-green, white, black, and cream. Newborn narwhals are gray-brown; the white spots come with age. At birth they are about 5 feet long and 180 pounds. Male narwhals can reach up to sixteen feet long, not including the “horn” which is eight to nine feet long, and weigh around 3,500 pounds. Females are around thirteen feet long, and generally don’t have tusks, though some females can grow small ones, but they aren’t as prominent as a males. They weigh around 2000-2,800 pounds. Adult males and females are usually dark on the head, especially the top of the head and upper and lower jaws. Unlike most other whales, narwhals have no dorsal fin, instead they have a low bumpy ridge that begins midpoint of the back and continues to the fluke, or tailfins. The “horn” that gives the narwhals the name “Sea Unicorn”, is actually a tooth that can reach up to nine feet long and can weigh up to twenty pounds. Both males and females are born with two teeth pointing forward in the upper jaw, but the left tooth of the male grows long and spirals counter clockwise toward the tip. On rare occasions there have been narwhals with twin tusks, where both teeth grow through the upper lip forming the famous “horn.” Research on narwhals supports the idea that the tusk is both a weapon and a symbol of dominance in mating rituals. Some other ideas about what the tusk is used for include using it as an ice breaker, an instrument to poke breathing holes in ice, to stir up the sea bottom for food, and a skewer to impale

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