Narwhals!

I think this counts as the most interesting read of the day: How Narwhals Work - via How Stuff Works.com

It's a very well-researched investigation of the mysterious and fascinating creature, everything from how it was portrayed by early sailors; how it spends its time in the water, getting food and generally being awesome; what the gnarly, beautiful looking horn is really made out of; and even the sad reality of poachers and threats to its natural habitat. 

Here are just a few points that interested me:

• Vikings brought back Narwhal tusks and people thought they belonged to unicorns, causing the legend of the mythical creatures to spread
• They have also been called “corpse whales” because some people think that their skin – with its patchy discoloration – resembles the skin of the dead. The patches spread as the whale gets older, so the whiter the whale, the older it probably is.
• Large brains: proportionally, the narwhal’s brain is second only to the human’s brain in size
• What makes them similar to bats? Their use of echolocation to locate prey, and possibly to communicate
• They can dive more than a mile into the depths of the ocean
• That’s not a tusk (really): It’s a tooth! And it’s incredibly fascinating. Instead of being hard on the outside and soft on the inside, like human teeth, the narwhal “horn” is the opposite. Scientists believe that this quality of the tooth makes it useful as a sensor, picking up on temperature and atmospheric changes in the surrounding ocean. Almost all males have a tusk, and even about 15% of females brandish one. And contrary to popular believe (we’re looking at you, Jules Verne), the tusk is not used as a weapon. It would make a good one, though, as it’s the only straight tusk in the wild, can reach up to 9 feet in length (nearly 2/3 of the length of the average male’s entire body) and the outside of it corkscrews around, all the way from pointy tip to base. Also, it’s quite flexible, able to bend nearly a foot in any direction.

Great stuff. You can always count on How Stuff Works to intrigue, entertain, and enlighten.

Now, this:

-JJ