Toothed Whales

A female Sperm Whale 

 The Odontoceti family of Whales comprises of various species of toothed Cetaceans, from the humble Harbour Porpoise all the way the the behemoth that is the Sperm Whale. Overall these toothed animals outnumber the baleen Whales by miles in the Cetacean families found across the globe. They are perhaps the most diverse cohort of mammals in the world and Kerry plays host to a diverse variety of these animals from the shallow bays eaten into the coastline by the Atlantic to the vast expanse of open ocean beyond the continental shelf to the West, defined by undersea canyons.
 Toothed Whales are categorised by not surprisingly having teeth!, a single blowhole or nasal passage, a dorsal fin half way along the animals back in the case of Dolphins and Porpoises (not the larger Sperm Whale) and a specialised organ on top/ to the front of the animals head called the melon (the spermaceti organ in Sperm Whales) used almost entirely for specialist feeding techniques but also for communication.    

Sperm Whale and Common Dolphin tooth comparison

Interestingly the two teeth featured on the left show just how drastic a size difference there is between the largest carnivore on earth and our smallest dolphin species. One preys upon Giant Squid alone in the bleak, blacked out abysses of the continental shelf while the other organises itself and others into efficient groups to corral fish such as Herring in the inshore waters of Ireland. Both animals could not be more physically different but they both exploit their own biological niche amazingly efficiently.
A bout of D.I.Y  C.S.I with these teeth can uncover the animals age by simply slicing the tooth in half, then smearing the slightly serrated inner grooves of the tooth with ink to count these grooves just as you would with a tree and its growth rings!
 As eluded to above, these animals have developed a sophisticated sound system over Milena. This system is composed of the melon/ spermaceti organ, fine tuned hearing and adapted bone structure, The animal would emmit a series of clicks from just below its blowhole, these clicks then pass through the acoustic lens that is the melon or spermaceti organ and bounce off the skulls curved centrepiece which resembles a satellite dish in my view. This sound is then shot out of the animals head towards whatever the animal wants to identify. The sound rebounds off of the object or prey and returns to the animal via its elongated lower jaw bones and directed towards its ears. Using this method the animal can see with sound and efficiently pinpoint their prey.
 These toothed Cetaceans are highly evolved to take advantage of prey sources and as such are regarded to be classed as second in intelligence only behind ourselves! Bottle nose Dolphins like Fungi in Dingle harbour are particularly credited as being highly intelligent due to their ingenuitive hunting techniques, ability to recognise themselves in a mirror and have their own form of language or advanced communication system. The mighty Sperm Whale is the holder of the largest brain of any animal so it's not surprising that these highly sophisticated species are only second to homo sapiens.