It’s a Tooth!

A friend and I met to have a brown bag lunch today at Reed College, her place of employ. While she was grabbing her lunch from the fridge, the narwhal photo (because of course there was a photo of a narwhal magneted to the staff fridge at Reed College) prompted me to wonder at the dizzying length of the horn. Her response floored me:

“It’s actually the left front tooth.”

What?! I couldn’t contain my shock and awe. We talked about the wonders of evolution, both sublime and perplexing.

It turns out that, like so many nooks and crannies of our world, there are a number of facts about narwhals guaranteed to fascinate.

What I learned at life today: Seriously, it’s a tooth. The “unicorn of the sea” is a dentist’s boggle.