Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat
Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick was inspired by historical instances in which large sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus L.) sank 19th century whaling ships by ramming them with their foreheads. The immense forehead of sperm whales is possibly the largest, and one of the strangest, anatomical stru...
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crpeerj:10.7287/peerj.preprints.1590 2024-06-02T08:13:17+00:00 Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R Pataky, Todd C 2015 http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1590 https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.pdf https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.xml https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.html unknown PeerJ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ posted-content 2015 crpeerj https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1590 2024-05-07T14:13:45Z Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick was inspired by historical instances in which large sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus L.) sank 19th century whaling ships by ramming them with their foreheads. The immense forehead of sperm whales is possibly the largest, and one of the strangest, anatomical structures in the animal kingdom. It contains two large oil-filled compartments, known as the “spermaceti organ” and “junk”, that constitute up to one-quarter of body mass and extend one-third of the total length of the whale. Recognized as playing an important role in echolocation, previous studies have also attributed the complex structural configuration of the spermaceti organ and junk to acoustic sexual selection, acoustic prey debilitation, buoyancy control, and aggressive ramming. Of these additional suggested functions, ramming remains the most controversial, and the potential mechanical roles of the structural components of the spermaceti organ and junk in ramming remain untested. Here we explore the aggressive ramming hypothesis using a novel combination of structural engineering principles and probabilistic simulation to determine if the unique structure of the junk significantly reduces stress in the skull during quasi-static impact. Our analyses indicate that the connective tissue partitions within the junk reduce stress across the skull during impact; stress reduction is greatest in the anterior aspect of the skull; and removal of the connective tissue partitions increases stress concentrations on the tip of the skull, possibly making it prone to fracture. Although the unique structure of the junk certainly serves multiple functions, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the structure also evolved to function as a massive battering ram during male-male competition. Other/Unknown Material Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale PeerJ Publishing |
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Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick was inspired by historical instances in which large sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus L.) sank 19th century whaling ships by ramming them with their foreheads. The immense forehead of sperm whales is possibly the largest, and one of the strangest, anatomical structures in the animal kingdom. It contains two large oil-filled compartments, known as the “spermaceti organ” and “junk”, that constitute up to one-quarter of body mass and extend one-third of the total length of the whale. Recognized as playing an important role in echolocation, previous studies have also attributed the complex structural configuration of the spermaceti organ and junk to acoustic sexual selection, acoustic prey debilitation, buoyancy control, and aggressive ramming. Of these additional suggested functions, ramming remains the most controversial, and the potential mechanical roles of the structural components of the spermaceti organ and junk in ramming remain untested. Here we explore the aggressive ramming hypothesis using a novel combination of structural engineering principles and probabilistic simulation to determine if the unique structure of the junk significantly reduces stress in the skull during quasi-static impact. Our analyses indicate that the connective tissue partitions within the junk reduce stress across the skull during impact; stress reduction is greatest in the anterior aspect of the skull; and removal of the connective tissue partitions increases stress concentrations on the tip of the skull, possibly making it prone to fracture. Although the unique structure of the junk certainly serves multiple functions, our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the structure also evolved to function as a massive battering ram during male-male competition. |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R Pataky, Todd C |
spellingShingle |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R Pataky, Todd C Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
author_facet |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R Pataky, Todd C |
author_sort |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga |
title |
Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_short |
Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_full |
Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_fullStr |
Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_full_unstemmed |
Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_sort |
architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
publisher |
PeerJ |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1590 https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.pdf https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.xml https://peerj.com/preprints/1590.html |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.1590 |
_version_ |
1800736723969245184 |