Skip to content
Vagobond
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Vagobond Podcast Adventures
  • Vagobond Travel Videos
Menu

Secrets of 'unicorn' revealed – nine foot horns are sensitive

Posted on December 13, 2005 by CD

Wow, a nine-foot long sensory organ. Hmmm, there’s a joke in here somewhere….
narwhal

For centuries, the tusk of the narwhal has fascinated and baffled.
Narwhal tusks, up to nine feet long, were sold as unicorn horns in ages past, often for many times their weight in gold since they were said to possess magic powers. In the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth received a tusk valued at £10,000 – the cost of a castle. Austrian lore holds that Kaiser Karl the Fifth paid off a large national debt with two tusks. In Vienna, the Hapsburgs had one made into a scepter heavy with diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds.
Scientists have long tried to explain why a stocky whale that lives in arctic waters, feeding on cod and other creatures that flourish amid the pack ice, should wield such a long tusk. The theories about how the narwhal uses the tusk have included breaking ice, spearing fish, piercing ships, transmitting sound, shedding excess body heat, poking the seabed for food, wooing females, defending baby narwhals and establishing dominance in social hierarchies.
But a team of scientists from Harvard and the National Institute of Standards and Technology has now made a startling discovery: the tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making the living appendage one of the planet’s most remarkable, and one that in some ways outdoes its own mythology.
The find came when the team turned an electron microscope on the tusk’s material and found new subtleties of dental anatomy. The close-ups showed that 10 million nerve endings tunnel from the tusk’s core toward its outer surface, communicating with the outside world. The scientists say the nerves can detect subtle changes of temperature, pressure, particle gradients and probably much else, giving the animal unique insights.

It’s Sensitive. Really. – New York Times

Related

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recent Posts

  • Changing the World with #MicroVictory after #Microvictory
  • Bitcoin Pizza Day – 2023 – May 22nd Free Pizza Party in Honolulu
  • The Children’s Crusade – A Broadway Show by ChatGPT
  • Baldism and the Holiest of Holies
  • Happy May Day! Workers Unite! Baldists Celebrate with a Day Off!

Vagobond Links

  • VM Discord
  • Vagobond Substack
  • Vagobond Medium
  • CD’s Cent Page
  • CD’s Amazon Author Page
  • VoiceMarkr App

Vagobond Magazine

MicroVictory Army

Baldism.org

VoiceMarkr

Hawaii Travel

  • Big Island
  • Kauai
  • Lanai
  • Maui
  • Molokai
  • Oahu

Beyond Hawaii Travel

  • Australia
  • Belgium
  • Bulgaria
  • Canada
  • China
  • Dubai
  • Egypt
  • France
  • Germany
  • Greece
  • Iceland
  • Indonesia
  • Ireland
  • Italy
  • Japan
  • Luxembourg
  • Macedonia
  • Malaysia
  • Morocco
  • Singapore
  • South Korea
  • Spain
  • Sri Lanka
  • Turkey
  • USA Mainland
  • Vietnam

Oahu Travel

  • Oahu
  • Oahu Tourist Attractions
  • Oahu Neighborhoods
  • Oahu Beaches
  • Oahu Food and Drink
  • Oahu’s Natural Beauty
  • Hawaiian History and Culture
© 2023 Vagobond | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme