Narwhal means "corpse whale" in Old Norse; this is perhaps a description of their skin, which is bluish-gray with white blotches (young narwhals are brown). Narwhals have a cylindrical body (with no dorsal fin) and a round head with a small mouth on their blunt snout.
Narwhals can grow to be about 16 feet (4.9 m) long (not counting the tooth), and weigh about 1.8 tons (1.6 tonnes). Females are slightly smaller, averaging about 13 feet (4 m) long, and weighing 1 ton (0.9 tonnes). At birth, narwhals are about 5 feet (1.5 m) long and 175 pounds (80 kg). All narwhals have two teeth in their upper jaw. After the first year of a male narwhal's life, its left tooth grows outward, spirally. This long, single tooth projects from its upper jaw and can grow to be 7-10 feet (2-3 m) long.
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