James Deutsch | Senior Content Coordinator, Smithsonian’s America at 250 Book Project Marine biologists may be able to tell us why the narwhal has a distinctive spiraling tusk, but their scientific ...

The narwhal's spiraling tusk has a way of hypnotizing those who study it. The 17th-century Danish zoologist Olaus Wörm, for example, grew fascinated with these ivory spars, struggling to unveil their ...

Rare underwater glimpse: Footage from a Greenland fjord shows narwhal sounds and a snailfish drifting backward, offering a ...

Researchers in Quebec discovered the narwhal, over 100km outside its typical range, was playing with the whales Whale researchers in Quebec’s St Lawrence River are celebrating a remarkable discovery: ...

Narwhals have been dubbed the “unicorns of the sea” because of the striking spiral “horns” that protrude from their heads. In the medieval times, narwhal tusks were prized because they were believed ...

Researchers have long debated what the 10-foot-long tooth that erupts from a narwhal’s head is actually for. Perhaps it has something to do with sexual selection, and males with longer horns attract ...

For centuries, the purpose of a narwhal’s tusk has eluded explanation. Now, researchers suggest that these small whales use their tusks as sensory organs and speculate that sensing changes in seawater ...