Campus Oddities

September 4, 2009

If you know of something that has a great story, would make a great photo or is just plain weird and wonderful, please email us at ocn@usask.ca or call 966-6610.

A whale of a tooth

Not all of the biology specimens at the university are seen in the Museum of Natural Sciences. In fact, most of the fossils, furs and animal remains are behind closed doors, including this enormous nine-foot-long narwhal tusk.

“I was surprised how heavy it was,” says Phil McLoughlin, assistant professor of biology as he holds up the nearly 30-pound piece of ivory.

He explains that the tusk from a male narwhal is actually an incisor tooth that projects from the left side of the upper jaw, with the ivory forming a left-handed helix. Usually narwhals grow one tusk 7–10 feet in length, but on rare occasions two tusks have been found on one whale. 

McLoughlin, who just returned home from studying the wild horse population on Sable Island, said many faculty members return from fieldwork with interesting specimens.

The tusk, for example, was brought to the U of S by late professor Malcolm Ramsay after one of his many expeditions to study polar bears in northern Canada.  Ramsay died in a helicopter crash in 2000 but not before making a lasting contribution to polar bear research and providing the department with this amazing piece for the collection.