Inside a Sperm Whale's Mouth

Sperm whales have conical teeth on their long, narrow, lower jaw. The teeth fit neatly into sockets in the upper jaw, which has no teeth. This arrangement is a perfect adaptation for slurping up soft-bodied squids—giant or otherwise. The sperm whale is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species.

Photo taken of the inside of a sperm whale's mouth. The teeth on the lower jaw fit into sockets above- perfect for eating squid.
©Clyde F.E. Roper

View Related Ocean Media Content

comment_wrapper_curve_top

Share your comments here.

* When you click submit, your comment will be added to the queue for review and will be published after approval.

  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Filtered words will be replaced with the filtered version of the word.

More information about formatting options

Type the characters you see in this picture. (verify using audio)
Type the characters you see in the picture above; if you can't read them, submit the form and a new image will be generated. Not case sensitive.

Comments

Freaked out!

That giant mouth creeps me out! Glad I'm not really up against it!!!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/06/2013 - 4:25pm.

it is cool

it is cool

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 05/31/2010 - 7:35pm.

comment_wrapper_curve