Scientific Illustration

Narwhal anatomy including unusual two horned specimens by BioDivLibrary on Flickr.

Herrn Johann Anderson, I.V.D. und weyland ersten Bürgermeisters der Freyen Kayserlichen Reichsstadt Hamburg, Nachrichten von island, Grönland und der Strasse Davis, :.
Hamburg, :verlegts Georg Christian Grund, Buchdr.,1746..
biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41333998

microecos:

compendium-of-beasts:

Monodon Monoceros. (Sea Unicorn, or Narwhal). [Class 1. Mammalia; Order 7. Cete] (MDCCCIV-VI [1804-1806])

via NYPL

Double tusker gives lie to the binomial!

naturalistandco:

this is an amazing photo set! Enjoy! 

beardybeardy:

Narwhal. Need I say more?

LARGE Whales poster vintage illustration educational by ARMINHO on We Heart It. http://weheartit.com/entry/29654309

sigosiendohormiga:

Le narval ou licorne de mer (narwhal) by peacay on Flickr.

rhamphotheca:

New Fossil Whale, Bohaskaia monodontoides

A reconstruction of a new fossil beluga relative, Bohaskaia monodontoides, described by Smithsonian scientists, is in the foreground. Its living relatives, the beluga and narwhal, are illustrated left to right in the background. The coloration of the extinct whale is speculative. 

Monodontids, the group of whales that includes living belugas and narwhals, are emblematic symbols of the Arctic. However, the fossil record shows that these animals had a much larger range than the northern pole. 

In the March 2012 issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, the National Museum of Natural History’s curator of fossil marine mammals Nick Pyenson, and Howard University/NMNH pre-doctoral student Jorge Velez-Juarbe described a new species of fossil monodontid from early Pliocene deposits (around 3-4 million years old) in Virginia and North Carolina.

(learn more: Smithsonian Ocean Portal)     (illustration by Carl Buell)

Narwhal teeth (Monodon monoceros)

Only the Male (above) has one enormous tooth. The skull of the female showing the much smaller teeth is below

From: Odontography; or, A treatise on the comparative anatomy of the teeth; their physiological relations, mode of development, and microscopic structure, in the vertebrate animals. by Richard Owen.

Narwhal

(via workman)

eximago:

Meet Odobenocetops (literally “walrus-faced whale”). Yes, it’s a freak, but that’s why we love it. This genus of dolphin with its own family (Odobenocetopsidae) forms a sister group with Monodontidae, which houses both narwhals (Monodon monoceros) and beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas), which is part of what makes them so bizarre. Both Odobenocetops and the narwhal have tusks evolved from incisors, but the beluga whale does not. This means tusks would have evolved separately and independently in both. What’s more, is that the only male Odobenocetops found has profoundly uneven tusks. This is interesting because only one incisor normally becomes a tusk in narwhals, so these are two rare instances of asymmetry evolving convergently in related species, which only makes it more spectacular. Also astonishing is how different these dolphins were from their cousins. For one, they have flattened skulls and lacked the bulbous melons (which gives dolphins their rounded foreheads) of other toothed whales which are involved in echolocation. To compensate, their eyes are set comparatively high on the head and face forward, giving them binocular vision, kinda like us. These features suggest that it was likely a bottom feeder, evolving convergently with walruses (Odobenus rosmarus), and sucking small shelled invertebrates from the sea bed and prying them out with powerful tongues. Odobenocetops may have used its tusks to help dig up food, as walruses were once believed to.