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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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 |
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:50|dedup_wf_001::5020f82e5279dfdb3ef896df51c265dd 2023-05-15T17:59:23+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. 2017-03-22 https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 undefined unknown Dryad Digital Repository https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 lic_creative-commons 10.5061/dryad.81rp6 oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:93665 oai:services.nod.dans.knaw.nl:Products/dans:oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:93665 10|openaire____::9e3be59865b2c1c335d32dae2fe7b254 re3data_____::r3d100000044 10|re3data_____::84e123776089ce3c7a33db98d9cd15a8 10|eurocrisdris::fe4903425d9040f680d8610d9079ea14 10|re3data_____::94816e6421eeb072e7742ce6a9decc5f 10|openaire____::081b82f96300b6a6e3d282bad31cb6e2 10|opendoar____::8b6dd7db9af49e67306feb59a8bdc52c sperm whales ramming combat head-butting finite element analysis probabilistic simulation spermaceti organ junk Physeter macrocephalus L Life sciences medicine and health care envir socio Dataset https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_ddb1/ 2017 fttriple https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 2023-01-22T17:41:59Z 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 ... Dataset Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale Unknown |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Unknown |
op_collection_id |
fttriple |
language |
unknown |
topic |
sperm whales ramming combat head-butting finite element analysis probabilistic simulation spermaceti organ junk Physeter macrocephalus L Life sciences medicine and health care envir socio |
spellingShingle |
sperm whales ramming combat head-butting finite element analysis probabilistic simulation spermaceti organ junk Physeter macrocephalus L Life sciences medicine and health care envir socio 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 |
sperm whales ramming combat head-butting finite element analysis probabilistic simulation spermaceti organ junk Physeter macrocephalus L Life sciences medicine and health care envir socio |
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 ... |
format |
Dataset |
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 |
publisher |
Dryad Digital Repository |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 |
genre |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
genre_facet |
Physeter macrocephalus Sperm whale |
op_source |
10.5061/dryad.81rp6 oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:93665 oai:services.nod.dans.knaw.nl:Products/dans:oai:easy.dans.knaw.nl:easy-dataset:93665 10|openaire____::9e3be59865b2c1c335d32dae2fe7b254 re3data_____::r3d100000044 10|re3data_____::84e123776089ce3c7a33db98d9cd15a8 10|eurocrisdris::fe4903425d9040f680d8610d9079ea14 10|re3data_____::94816e6421eeb072e7742ce6a9decc5f 10|openaire____::081b82f96300b6a6e3d282bad31cb6e2 10|opendoar____::8b6dd7db9af49e67306feb59a8bdc52c |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 |
op_rights |
lic_creative-commons |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.81rp6 |
_version_ |
1766168191359254528 |