Sperm whales, cetaceans of the suborder Sperm Whale family, have a huge head, a body length of up to 18 meters, and a weight of more than 50 tons, making them the largest toothed whales. It is a mammal with the deepest diving and longest diving time. They are widely distributed in non-icy waters around the world, and can be found in non-icy seas from the equator to the poles. The dried product of the intestinal secretions of sperm whales is called "ambergris", which is the best substance to keep the perfume fragrant and is used as a perfume fixative. It is also a valuable traditional Chinese medicine, which can be used to treat cough, asthma, pain and other symptoms.
Adult males are usually one-third longer than females and weigh up to twice as much as females. In contrast to its body, the sperm whale's head appears disproportionately heavy and large, with the largest brain in the animal kingdom, while the tail appears both light and small. The head of an adult male whale is particularly prominent, generally accounting for four to one-third of the total length of the body, and the appearance is roughly square. The nostrils are located on either side of the front left of the top of the head, but although the sperm whale has two nostrils, only the left nostril is unblocked for breathing, while the nostrils on the right side are naturally blocked, which causes the sperm whale to always be on the right side of the body when it surfaces to breathe, and the water mist column is sprayed at an angle of about 45° to the left front.
The lower jaw of the sperm whale is short and narrow, rod-like, and shorter than the upper jaw of the head, which is very disproportionate and difficult to distinguish when viewed from the side. Their jaws are small but their bones are strong and powerful. Several conical teeth grow on the mandibular maxillofacial surface, which are more than 20 cm long around the lower jaw. Sperm whales, on the other hand, do not have teeth on their upper jaws, only small cone-shaped holes (alveoli) pierced by the teeth of the lower jaws. The surface of the skin in the posterior part of the body usually has many horizontal folds, unlike the smooth and firm skin of other cetaceans. Without dorsal fins, the pectoral fins are short and broad, the tip is rounded, the caudal fin is triangular in shape, and the edges are straight.
The back of the sperm whale has a dark grey to dark skin tone that appears tan in bright sunlight. The abdomen is silvery gray and white. The upper lip and jaw are white near the tongue. There are usually irregular white patches in the flanks. It prefers to live in groups, often by a small number of male whales and large groups of female whales and juvenile whales into dozens of large groups, or even two or three hundred. It swims very fast, up to a dozen nautical miles per hour due to reproduction and foraging, and sperm whales have excellent diving ability, diving up to 2200 meters deep and staying underwater for up to two hours. There are often jumping waves or whale tails. Sperm whales float on the surface of the water to sleep, sleep is very heavy, often floating on the surface of the water for several hours.
Ambergris is a waxy substance that occasionally forms in the intestines of sperm whales. Because sperm whales like to eat marine mollusks such as squid, octopus and squid, they cannot digest the beak bones of marine mollusks, and these beak bones gradually form a viscous, lumpy dark substance with secretions in the small intestine. This substance is stored in the colon and rectum of the sperm whale, when it is first taken out, it smells bad, and after a period of storage, it gradually becomes fragrant, better than "musk", so it is called "ambergris", and the name of the sperm whale is also derived from this. But ambergris is not common, so it is extremely expensive, almost equivalent to gold.