finger tips

Arctic animal finger puppets. I think they'd go well with these.

Found via wit + delight's svpply.

not your average tooth

(The narwhal) tusk, it turns out, forms a sensory organ of exceptional size and sensitivity, making the living appendage one of the planet's most remarkable, and one that in some ways outdoes its own mythology.

The find came when the team turned an electron microscope on the tusk's material and found new subtleties of dental anatomy. The close-ups showed that 10 million nerve endings tunnel from the tusk's core toward its outer surface, communicating with the outside world. The scientists say the nerves can detect subtle changes of temperature, pressure, particle gradients and probably much else, giving the animal unique insights.

William J. Broad, 12/13/2005 NYT

Yesterday I went to the dentist and it got me thinking about about narwhals, the creatures with the most sensitive teeth on earth.

in action

I love watching nature movies, but I hate the dramatic narrators - this clip features shifting ice that momentarily pens the narwhals in, which the narrator plays up for all it is worth. I'd prefer just to watch them, without having to worry about their imminent, potentially televised demise.

(Don't worry - they survive.)

the one that is good at curving itself to the sky

Something wondrous for a Tuesday morning: narwhals surfacing for air near the edge of an ice floe in Arctic Bay, Canada.

It's hard to believe such creatures exist, but they do. Apparently, the Inuit name for them translates as 'the one that is good at curving itself to the sky', because of the way they poke their heads out of the water.

Beautiful.

The photo is part of the 'Irreplaceable: Wildlife in a Warming World' project/Paul Nicklen/National Geographic Image Collection. Discovered through The Big Picture.