Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Like other toothed whales, the sperm whale can retract its eyes. The sperm whale's eye does not differ greatly from those of other toothed whales except in size. It is the largest among the toothed whales, weighing about 170 g. It is overall ellipsoid in shape, compressed along the visual axis, measuring about 7×7×3 cm.
Spermaceti is taken from the spermaceti organ (yellow) and junk (orange) within the sperm whale's head. Raw spermaceti is liquid within the head of the sperm whale, and is said to have a smell similar to raw milk. [8] It is composed mostly of wax esters (chiefly cetyl palmitate) and a smaller proportion of triglycerides. [9]
A sperm whale may contain as much as 1,900 L (420 imp gal; 500 US gal) of this oil. [ 3 ] The morphology of the nasal complex is believed to be homologous in all of the echolocating Odontoceti (toothed whales), with the spermaceti organ homologous to the dorsal bursa in the dolphin . [ 4 ]
I'm sitting on my back porch out in the Azores."It’s been a painstaking task that she has carried out manually and single-handedly, for the last 35 years.Since the 1980s Steiner has been ...
One common theory is that the fluid—which hardens to wax when cold—helps the whale alter its buoyancy so it can dive deep and rise again." And sperm whales function as a family, "Sperm whales ...
In modern whaling, after the oil had been extracted the meat was usually ground down into a meal for feeding livestock. After sperm whale populations declined significantly, the species was given full protection by the International Whaling Commission in 1985. Hunting of sperm whales by Japan in the northern Pacific Ocean continued until 1988. [13]
For premium support please call: 800-290-4726 more ways to reach us
James Bartley (1870–1909) is the central figure in a late nineteenth-century story according to which he was swallowed whole by a sperm whale. He was found still living days later in the stomach of the whale, which was dead from harpooning. The story originated of an anonymous form, began to appear in American newspapers.