Research Findings

Brief and incomplete descriptions have been made to identify Inuit and Eskimo narwhal anatomic classifications. After field and laboratory dissection, and scan information is collected, we will publish a paper with authorship from at least one Canadian Inuit elder and one Greenlandic Eskimo elder. Anatomic classifications have been recorded for over 100 years in Inuit and Eskimo culture, and still no one has formally recognized these descriptions in the scientific literature. Such a paper would be culturally significant in its identification and recognition of traditional field observations as well as to narwhal anatomy. Additional interviews with Inuit elders will be conducted in 2004 and recorded on narwhal anatomy and behavior. Two interpreters and translators have been retained to assist and prepare transcripts in English and Inuktitut.

Studies of narwhal tooth histology will help in the understanding of tooth composition and its relation to whale growth and behavior. More extensive testing of narwhal dentin and enamel may reveal additional findings and describe a more complicated composition and structure. Age determination (Berzin, 1961a) (Ohsumi et al., 1963) and cycle of ovulation (Berzin, 1961b) are directly related to growth layers in the teeth of sperm whales. The relationship of growth layers and age is unclear in Monodontidae (Sergeant, 1962; Bada, 1983) though reports indicate that two layers may be deposited for each year of growth (Sargeant 1959) in Delphinapterus leucas (beluga). Both dentin and cementin are deposited within each layer. Computerized infrared mapping microscopy may provide a method for distinguishing growth layers in narwhal teeth and help characterize their composition.

Because the expression of the narwhal tusk contradicts predictable patterns, and because there is a lack of evolutionary information to describe its modern day features, there is likely a valuable insight that can be gained from understanding this uniquely odd example in nature. The possibility of a tooth as a sensory organ may help explain many characteristics of this tooth in the narwhal's communication with its environment and with other narwhals. Communication may lead to a better understanding of social behavior, migration patterns, and sex differences among narwhals. Such a finding may be as unique as the whale itself and may cause others to re-think the perception of other mammalian teeth. Information will be collected and integrated from field observations, traditional Inuit knowledge, and new scientific data from collaborators in dental and marine mammal research.