The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of all toothed whales and is the largest toothed animal alive, measuring up to 18 metres (60 ft) long.
The whale was named after the milky-white substance spermaceti found in its head and originally mistaken for sperm.
The Sperm Whale is exceptional for its very large head, particularly in males, which is typically one-third of the animals' length.
The Sperm Whale has the largest brain of any living creature on Earth.
The brain of a mature sperm whale weighs 7 kg (15 pounds) or more.
Sperm Whales, along with bottlenose whales, are the deepest-diving mammals in the world.
They are believed to be able to dive up to 3,000 metres in depth and 2 hours in duration to the ocean floor.
Toothed whale The toothed whales (systematic name Odontoceti) form a suborder of the cetaceans. As the name suggests, the suborder is characterized by having ... >
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Porpoise The porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. They are distinct from dolphins, although the ... >
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Baleen whale The baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form a suborder of the order cetacea. The distinguishing feature between this ... >
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Bowhead Whale The Bowhead Whale, also known as Greenland Right Whale or Arctic Whale, is a marine mammal of the order Cetacea. Bowhead Whales are the only baleen ... >
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Gray Whale The Gray Whale or Grey Whale, more recently called the Eastern Pacific Gray Whale, is a whale that travels between feeding and breeding grounds ... >
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Colossal Squid The Colossal Squid, sometimes called the Antarctic or Giant Cranch Squid, is believed to be the largest squid species, and the only member of the ... >
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Whale shark The whale shark (Rhincodon typus) is a distinctively-marked member of the subclass Elasmobranchii of the class Chondrichthyes. It is the largest ... >
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Evolution of cetaceans The cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are descendants of land-living mammals, and remnants of their terrestrial origins can be found in the ... >
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Narwhal The narwhal an Arctic species of cetacean. It is rarely found south of latitude 70 degrees North. It is one of two species of whale in the ... >
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Dolphin Dolphins, along with whales and porpoises, are thought to be descendants of terrestrial mammals, most likely of the Artiodactyl order. Modern dolphin ... >
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