There is a mysterious creature in Western legend, with spiral-shaped horns in front of its forehead and a body part that varies from slender white horse to goatee. This legendary creature is the "unicorn".
With the advent of the age of navigation, trade between Western countries was allowed, and in 1515, a mysterious "unicorn" was transported from India, which sailed the sea for four months to be given to the Pope of Portugal, however, the shipwreck encountered on the way, and this rare "unicorn" was also killed, which made the mythical unicorn even more mysterious. Later, it was learned that the "unicorn" in this story was actually an Indian rhinoceros.
The Indian rhinoceros never dreamed that his thick skin and thick flesh would almost become a mythical "unicorn". From this story, we can see the enthusiasm of Europeans for unicorns. With the advancement of the Age of Discovery, the rumors of unicorns have intensified, and legend has it that someone has seen the unicorns of the sea, and this sea unicorn has spiral-shaped horns and magical effects.
In 1577, the English seafaring explorer Martin Frobisher met Queen Elizabeth and offered the horn of the sea unicorn, which the royal family believed was extremely rare as a legendary creature, and its horn could be detoxified, and immediately rewarded Martin with 10,000 pounds, which was a huge amount of money, which was enough to buy a castle at the time.
In fact, the horns the queen gets are the teeth of a narwhal. Narwhal is a mammal living in the Arctic, its most unique place is that it has a very long spiral tooth on the head, this tooth looks very similar to the horn of the animal, after scientists have studied, this is actually the canine tooth of the narwhal, this canine tooth is generally a left spiral growth, can be up to 3.1 meters long, weighing up to 20 pounds. The narwhal is a medium-sized whale, the body length is generally 4.7 meters, this tooth is about to catch up with the body length, can be regarded as a giant tooth.
It is well known that human teeth are used to chew food, the teeth of beasts of prey are used to hunt, and the teeth of elephants are used to compete for mates, so what are the teeth of narwhals used for?
Let's first understand the narwhal, which lives in the cold Arctic, the Arctic sea ice is affected by the movement of ocean currents, always drifting, so there will be a lot of ice cracks, narwhals are a group of species that survive in the cracks in the Arctic ice. They eat wildly in the winter, the feeding pattern is also very special, narwhals are good at diving, they dive to a depth of 500 meters below sea level, prey on fish in the deep sea, narwhals are also very interesting when eating fish, they use their mouths to suck their prey into their mouths, this way of eating seems to have nothing to do with their large tusks, after scientists have studied, narwhals have exaggerated tusks, but there are no teeth in their mouths, and they eat all by storm inhalation, inhalation and swallowing.
Narwhals, like other whales, breathe through their lungs, which means they have to surface to breathe. At this time, they will appear in groups in the cracks in the ice in the Arctic, and if they do not find the cracks in time, they will become an accident, which will lead to the death of the narwhal swarm.
The Arctic winter is so dangerous, why do narwhals eat in winter?
Scientists speculate that narwhals can effectively avoid other predators by feeding in winter, diving into the deep sea about 15 times a day to feed, and usually accurately finding "vents" that can breathe. The ice-covered surface provides strong shelter for narwhals, and there are few predators in the deep seas of extremely cold seas, which is an effective way to survive from predators. According to studies, narwhals eat less during the summer and migrate to places close to the coast to seek refuge, and there are reports that in the summer sea, a killer whale attacked a small group of narwhals, and the narwhal swarm suffered heavy losses.
It can be seen that the tusks of narwhals do not have a force value, and narwhals are active in winter, eating wildly, and avoiding their natural enemies as much as possible, but how do they find "vents" in the frozen sea?
Studies have shown that the teeth of narwhals have as many as 10 million tiny nerves, these nerves extend vertically and horizontally, connected to the brain of narwhals, scientists speculate that this tusk is a sensory organ, able to detect the pressure, depth, temperature, and more effective information of water, which is very important for narwhals, they frequently shuttle in the deep sea foraging, through the induction of environmental analysis information, can efficiently find "vents". Scientists believe that this is the most important role of narwhal tusks.
However, most of the people with tusks are male narwhals, and if tusks are so important, why don't females have them?
Narwhals usually live together in 5 to 10, so it can be inferred that in group life, male narwhals lead the group to detect and find ways, and tusks are not only important sensory organs, but also allow male narwhals to have a higher social status in the group, but also have the role of competing for mates.