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The bisected head of a dolphin: The melon is just above the upper jaw. Three-dimensional models of various odontocete melons based on CT scans. The melon is a mass of adipose tissue found in the foreheads of all toothed whales. [1] [2] It focuses and modulates the animal's vocalizations and acts as a sound lens.
The shape of the beluga's head is unlike that of any other cetacean, as the melon is extremely bulbous, lobed and visible as a large frontal prominence. [45] Another distinctive characteristic it possesses is the melon is malleable; its shape is changed during the emission of sounds. [ 12 ]
The melon-headed whale is the only member of the genus Peponocephala.First recorded from a specimen collected in Hawaiʻi in 1841, the species was originally described as a member of the dolphin family and named Lagenorhynchus electra by John Edward Gray in 1846.
Beluga and Narwhal are native to coastal regions and pack ice around the Arctic Ocean. Both species are relatively small whales, 3–5 m (9.8–16.4 ft) in length, with a forehead melon, and a short or absent snout. Premaxillary teeth are absent. [1]
Hvaldimir, a white beluga whale that was rumored to be a Russian spy, has been found dead in waters off Norway.
In toothed whales, connective tissue exists in the melon as a head buckle. This is filled with air sacs and fat that aid in buoyancy and biosonar. The sperm whale has a particularly pronounced melon; this is called the spermaceti organ and contains the eponymous spermaceti, hence the name "sperm whale". Even the long tusk of the narwhal is a ...
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The melon consists of fat, and the skull of any such creature containing a melon will have a large depression. The melon size varies between species, the bigger it is, the more dependent they are on it. A beaked whale, for example, has a small bulge sitting on top of its skull, whereas a sperm whale's head is filled mainly with the melon.