Sperm whale is a pelagic mammal with a worldwide range, and will migrate seasonally for feeding and breeding.
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22 Facts About Sperm whale
2.
The sperm whale uses echolocation and vocalization as loud as 230 decibels underwater.
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3.
Spermaceti, from which the whale derives its name, was a prime target of the whaling industry, and was sought after for use in oil lamps, lubricants, and candles.
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4.
Sperm whale whaling was a major industry in the 19th century, depicted in the novel Moby-Dick.
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5.
Sperm whale is known as the "cachalot", which is thought to derive from the archaic French for 'tooth' or 'big teeth', as preserved for example in the word in the Gascon dialect.
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6.
Sperm whale belongs to the order Cetartiodactyla, the order containing all cetaceans and even-toed ungulates.
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7.
Sperm whale is one of the species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
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8.
Sperm whale is the largest toothed whale, with adult males measuring up to 20.
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9.
Largest animal weighed in whole was a sperm whale which measured 18 metres long and weighed 53 tonnes (52 long tons; 58 short tons).
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10.
The sperm whale has 18 to 26 teeth on each side of its lower jaw which fit into sockets in the upper jaw.
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11.
Sperm whale brain is the largest known of any modern or extinct animal, weighing on average about 7.
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12.
The sperm whale has a lower encephalization quotient than many other whale and dolphin species, lower than that of non-human anthropoid apes, and much lower than humans'.
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13.
Sperm whale's cerebrum is the largest in all mammalia, both in absolute and relative terms.
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14.
The complex arterial retia mirabilia of the sperm whale are more extensive and larger than those of any other cetacean.
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15.
The sperm whale uses these sounds for echolocation and communication.
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16.
Sperm whale vocalization is a learned behavior that is clan specific.
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17.
When echolocating, the sperm whale emits a directionally focused beam of broadband clicks.
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18.
However, if the whale matures and the size of the spermaceti organ increases, the tone of the whale's click will change.
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19.
An incident was filmed from a long-line trawler: a killer whale pod was systematically taking fish caught on the trawler's long lines when a male sperm whale appeared to repeatedly charge the killer whale pod in an attempt to drive them away; it was speculated by the film crew that the sperm whale was attempting to access the same fish.
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20.
Sperm whale whaling declined in the second half of the nineteenth century, as petroleum came into broader use.
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21.
Arguably the most famous sperm whale counter-attack occurred on 20 November 1820, when a whale claimed to be about 25.
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22.
Sperm whale was designated as the Connecticut state animal by the General Assembly in 1975.
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