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Narwhal Tusks are Sensory Organs
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.'"
Redeem them for valuable prizes.
in another related report today, unicorns and swordfish claim their sword's have the same sensitive attributes and should not be underrated.
They're antennae! Narwhals are the contacts for the aliens! Where's my tinfoil...
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Who new that sensitive teeth could be an evolutionary advantage...
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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.
My "highly sensitive sensory organ" is about the same size.
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It's quite sobering to realise that they're sensory organs when you consider that poachers hack them off. :o(
That must hurt like a bastard - think more like ripping a tooth out than clipping a fingernail...
...why Mr. Narwhale knew that Buddy was leaving.
It's interesting how our highly developed sense of cognition limits us to thinking sharp+pointed=weapon, however I've also seen John Holmes flogging a few porn stars senseless with his large sensory organ, so eh..
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But why is it only the whale bulls (are male whales called bulls in english to?) that have these then? If they have a purpose beside assisting in reproduction, for fighting or impressing the females then why would not the females also have them?
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NPR did a story on this yesterday morning.
Summary:
A Harvard dental researcher says he's figured out the purpose of the giant, unicorn-like tusk seen on narwhal whales: It acts like an antenna that allows the narwhal to sense food and sea conditions. The dentist says the tusks are a giant tooth that grows inside out, with hard tissue inside and sensitive nerves on the outside.
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A Narwhal man's place is in the kitchen! The tusks are for finding food.
And yes that's how you spell Narwhal.
Frog blast the vent core.
Does anybody proofread these submissions?
But not as you know it. Narwal are not the only species that have protrusions laced with sensors. Most insects have extremities that are used for sensing too, only in their case they are derived from legs (switch of the antennapedia gene and you get induviduals with legs on their heads) ;-)
But being a creature that has lost it's legs long ago, it uses a tooth instead of a leg. They must earn fortunes from the tooth fairy though
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Wow, could the summary have been worded just a bit differently?
Highly sensitive sensory organs? I would hope there isn't some evolutionary goal for mostly insensitive sensory organs, mediumly sensitive nonsensory gland (I beleive Dr. Seuss had a fully developed one) or even the dreaded exceedingly sensitive appendix wrinkle.
Oh, and a nice warning about the NYTimes soul draining registation would have been nice.
--- As to make my comment seem, by comparison, more intelegent... doodie doodie doodie poop poop poop!
While you're comparing yourself to a male narwhal, do you also do this (from TFA): "[the] tactile sense might explain why...two males gently rub tusks together"?
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
This just in ... Texas has just passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting narwhals from getting married.
The Tusks are not used for fighting. I am a biologist, and I do not know of any marine creature with horns used for fighting. Walrusses use their tusks for fighting, but that is on land. I doubt if they would be effective in the water.
Also, teeth are not easily broken, it is one of the most resilient parts of the whole body. One of the most commonly found fossils are teeth. And if you ever have had a big toothache, you'd know that there are plenty of nerves inside them.
But the reason narwals evolved a tooth for the job is probably because it was the easiest organ at hand: it already is laced with nerve endings, the only adapations it needed was for it to grow much bigger/longer and be pointed forward.
It's funny though, some people can sense weather changes through ulcers or athritis, but these guys sense them though their teeth, and they are not even rotten. (TFA speculates that the pointing of tusks into the air while surfacing for breathing would be to check the weather).
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Makes me wonder if they get lots of Radio Frequency Interference. At 2.0m to 2.8m long they would be sensitive in the RF range of 107MHz to 149MHz.
Any Hams/Broadcast Engineers know whats in that range of frequencys?
I don't want a pickle; I just want a Motor-Cycle! A four foot cop arrived with a five foot gun!
Perhaps that's the Narwhal equivalent of flossing after meals? With all those nerve endings and no dental plan, getting a bad cavity would hurt.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Aliens? Nah. The tusks are antenne for wireless communications for sharing whale songs among the Narwhal pods. The protocol? Why naturally their Pods use Bluetooth...
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Why not just get them to switch to sugarless codfish?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Actually, the females have them too, only smaller... at least some of them do. And some males have two, with one smaller than the other. Narwhal are beautiful, I used to love watching them glide past the beach in Resolute. There were about two days each summer when large groups went past.
;-)
Interesting notes upthread on the polar cod. They are central to the arctic ocean ecosystem; they feed on copepods, which in turn feed on tinier plankton and (especially) the algae that grow on the underside of the sea ice.
Diving under the ice (yes, I've done it) is fascinating - there's this whole inverted world, with the algae and the grazing copepods and the seals (very curious, not at all scared) and of course the cod. It's an immensely productive system, too, hence the huge numbers of migratory seabirds nesting in the arctic in the summer.
OK, now I want to go back. I guess ten years wasn't enough.
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I want to give you a cookie, you have sex! Wow! Could you please, good sir, enlighten us poor, socially awkward Slashdot readers as to how you accomplish such a feat? So far I have only been able to steal girls hair and giggle at rated-R movies while masturbating alone in my mom's basement on a Saturday night. I would give anything to learn how someone so obviously gifted at successful relationships manages to be such a sexual paragon while also having time enough to post about it. Please do tell, I await with bated breath and lonely heart.
Hey what happens under the ice.... STAYS under the ice!
Was she Inuit?
In Inuit legend the narwhal was created when a woman holding onto a harpoon had been pulled into the ocean and twisted around the harpoon. The submerged woman was wrapped around a Beluga whale on the other end of the harpoon, and that is how the narwhal was created. --Wikipedia
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