Biological Function
Currently there is disagreement on what biological purpose or purposes spermaceti serves. It might be used as a means of altering the whale's buoyancy, since the density of the spermaceti alters with its phase. Another hypothesis has been that it is used as a cushion to protect the sperm whale's delicate snout while diving. The whale's head may be used as a ram, perhaps to stun its prey, but that does not seem to account for the unusual properties of this substance.
The most likely primary function of the spermaceti organ is to add internal echo or resonator clicks to the sonar echo location clicks emitted by the respiratory organs. This makes it possible for the whale to sense the motion of its prey as well as its position. The changing distance to the prey affects the time interval between the returning clicks reflected by the prey (doppler effect). This would explain the low density and high compressibility of the spermaceti, which enhance the resonance by the contrast of the acoustic properties of the sea water and of the hard tissue surrounding the spermaceti.
Read more about this topic: Spermaceti
Famous quotes containing the words biological and/or function:
“No further evidence is needed to show that “mental illness” is not the name of a biological condition whose nature awaits to be elucidated, but is the name of a concept whose purpose is to obscure the obvious.”
—Thomas Szasz (b. 1920)
“The function of literature, through all its mutations, has been to make us aware of the particularity of selves, and the high authority of the self in its quarrel with its society and its culture. Literature is in that sense subversive.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)