Crossword Genius

Travelled around with chap who painted sea creatures (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

narwhals

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'painted sea creatures' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe you can see an association between them that I can't see?

'travelled around with chap who' is the wordplay.
'travelled' becomes 'ran' (running is a kind of traveling).
'around' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'with' becomes 'w' (short for with).
'chap who' becomes 'hals' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ran' backwards is 'nar'.
'nar'+'w'+'hals'='NARWHALS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for narwhals that I've seen is " Tusked whales".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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