SPERM WHALE

also called Cachalot (Physeter catodon), blunt-snouted whale of the family Physeteridae. The white, presumably albino, whale of Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick is of this species. The sperm whale is a thickset animal with small, paddlelike flippers and a series of rounded humps on its back. It is distinguished by an enormous head, squarish in profile, and a narrow, underslung lower jaw equipped with large, conical teeth. When the mouth is closed, the teeth fit into sockets in the usually toothless upper jaw. The sperm whale is dark blue-gray or brownish, with a paler belly. The male attains a maximum length of about 19 m (62 feet); the female is much smaller. The sperm whale is found in temperate and tropical waters throughout the world, usually in herds of about 15 to 20. Solitary males, however, may wander into colder regions. A deep diver, the sperm whale commonly reaches a depth of about 350 m (1,150 feet) and has been found tangled in cables 1,134 m (3,720 feet) below the surface. It feeds primarily on cephalopods, including the giant squid (Architeuthis). It is a commercially valuable whale and has been hunted for several centuries. Among other things, it produces spermaceti (a waxy substance contained in the snout) and ambergris (a material sometimes found floating in the sea and thought to be formed by feces impacted around a core of solid matter, such as squid beaks). Spermaceti is used in ointments, cosmetics, and other products, and ambergris as a fixative to hold the scent of fine perfumes. The pygmy sperm whale (Kogia) of the Northern Hemisphere is the only other member of the family Physeteridae. It is a little-known, dolphinlike whale, black above and paler below, and about 4 m (13 feet) long. It is of no commercial value.