Data from: 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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ftdans:oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:93665 2023-07-02T03:33:28+02:00 Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R. Pataky, Todd C. 2016-03-23T13:34:09.000+01:00 http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-wo-kpqu https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:93665 unknown doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/1 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/2 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/3 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/4 doi:10.7717/peerj.1895 PMID:27069822 http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-wo-kpqu doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6 https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:93665 OPEN_ACCESS: The data are archived in Easy, they are accessible elsewhere through the DOI https://dans.knaw.nl/en/about/organisation-and-policy/legal-information/DANSLicence.pdf Life sciences medicine and health care 2016 ftdans https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6/110.5061/dryad.81rp6/210.5061/dryad.81rp6/310.5061/dryad.81rp6/410.7717/peerj.189510.5061/dryad.81rp6 2023-06-13T12:51:17Z 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 in the junk reduce von Mises stresses across the skull and the load-redistribution functionality of the former is insensitive to tissue material parameters, the thickness of the partitions, and variations in the location and angle of the applied load. Absence of the connective tissue partitions increases skull stresses, particularly in the rostral aspect of the upper jaw, further hinting of the important role the architecture of the junk may play in ramming events. Our study also found that impact loads on the spermaceti organ generate lower skull stresses than an impact on the junk. Nevertheless, whilst an impact on the spermaceti organ would reduce skull stresses, it would also cause high compressive stresses on the ... Other/Unknown Material Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS): EASY (KNAW - Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS): EASY (KNAW - Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen) |
op_collection_id |
ftdans |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Life sciences medicine and health care |
spellingShingle |
Life sciences medicine and health care Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R. Pataky, Todd C. Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
topic_facet |
Life sciences medicine and health care |
description |
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 in the junk reduce von Mises stresses across the skull and the load-redistribution functionality of the former is insensitive to tissue material parameters, the thickness of the partitions, and variations in the location and angle of the applied load. Absence of the connective tissue partitions increases skull stresses, particularly in the rostral aspect of the upper jaw, further hinting of the important role the architecture of the junk may play in ramming events. Our study also found that impact loads on the spermaceti organ generate lower skull stresses than an impact on the junk. Nevertheless, whilst an impact on the spermaceti organ would reduce skull stresses, it would also cause high compressive stresses on the ... |
author |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R. Pataky, Todd C. |
author_facet |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Spyridis, Panagiotis Mehari Abraha, Hyab Carrier, David R. Pataky, Todd C. |
author_sort |
Panagiotopoulou, Olga |
title |
Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_short |
Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_full |
Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_fullStr |
Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_full_unstemmed |
Data from: Architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
title_sort |
data from: architecture of the sperm whale forehead facilitates ramming combat |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-wo-kpqu https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:93665 |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_relation |
doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/1 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/2 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/3 doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6/4 doi:10.7717/peerj.1895 PMID:27069822 http://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:nl:ui:13-wo-kpqu doi:10.5061/dryad.81rp6 https://easy.dans.knaw.nl/ui/datasets/id/easy-dataset:93665 |
op_rights |
OPEN_ACCESS: The data are archived in Easy, they are accessible elsewhere through the DOI https://dans.knaw.nl/en/about/organisation-and-policy/legal-information/DANSLicence.pdf |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6/110.5061/dryad.81rp6/210.5061/dryad.81rp6/310.5061/dryad.81rp6/410.7717/peerj.189510.5061/dryad.81rp6 |
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