Science Visualized Animals

Narwhal has the strangest tooth in the sea

narwhal illustration

TWISTING TOOTH  Most narwhals grow only one, the left tooth, and it always spirals to the left. Even in the rare cases where a right tusk emerges too, it also spirals to the left instead of having the mirror symmetry usual for mammal body parts. Narwhal tusks can grow to half the animal's body length.

W. Scoresby/Wikimedia Commons

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

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Sometimes called the unicorn of the sea, the male narwhal’s tusk is actually a tooth, and it grows directly through the whale’s upper lip instead of pushing the lip aside.