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Narwhal Tusks are Sensory Organs

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the not-always-about-knocking-things-over dept.

PR0UD_INFIDEL writes "The New York Times is reporting that a recent study has determined that Narwhal tusks are not for fighting or breaking through ice, but are highly sensitive sensory organs. From the article: 'The close-ups showed that 10 million nerve endings tunnel from the tusk's core toward its outer surface, [and can] detect subtle changes of temperature, pressure, particle gradients and probably much else.'"

2 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Particle Gradient FYI by joey_knisch · · Score: 5, Informative

    I had to search a bit but apparently this is when the amount of particles contained in a substrate changes with respect to distance and the distribution follows a pattern.

    Source: here is the sight that made me understand.

    This is all my speculation but I imagine this would be quite useful for narwhales since they live in a food deprived environment and could sense if they were getting closer to nutrient rich waters.

  2. Narwhal, not Narwhale by parkov · · Score: 5, Informative

    Does anybody proofread these submissions?