OceanMarine Mammals
The finest candles were pressed from spermaceti, the waxy oil filling a sperm whale's head.
They burned so evenly that the standard unit of brightness was defined as the light of one of them.
Source
This fact is written from the English Wikipedia article it links to, so you can check every word in one tap. Fact Drop rates that source 4 out of 5 for credibility, and the rating travels with the fact on the back of its card in the app.
Keep digging
This fact is part of the pack Everything Was Once a Whale. Read the pack
More ocean facts
Ocean facts from a place we have mapped less thoroughly than Mars. A male anglerfish merges with his mate for good, there are lakes at the bottom of the ocean, and below about 8,400 metres there are no fish at all. Each fact links to its source.
- Whale songs go through fashions.
- Ambergris forms in a sperm whale's gut and is found floating or washed up on beaches.
- Sea otters have pockets.
- A blue whale's tongue weighs as much as an elephant.
- A sperm whale's click is the loudest sound any animal makes, and it is produced by a nose.
- A narwhal's tusk is a single tooth grown out through the lip, and it is porous, with millions of nerve endings reaching the surface.