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The fossilized skull of a 28 million-year-old whale may be the oldest evidence paleontologists have of echolocation. According to analysis of the new species of toothed whale, Cotylocara macei looked similar to modern-day dolphins and lived in shallow marine environments. It also had a deep cavity on the top of its head that would have stored air during dives and may have reflected sound.
“The anatomy of the skull is really unusual,” Jonathan Geisler, a professor of anatomy at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “I’ve not seen anything like this in any other whale, living or extinct.”
Counting whales from a ship or a plane has always been difficult, but now scientists may have a new option: using images from space.
Using space images broadens the viewpoint — and the system is automated.
The DigitalGlobe's WorldView-2 platform uses extremely high-resolution satellite pictures and image-processing software to detect whales on or near the ocean's surface, according to the report in the journal Plos One.
How often do whales clean their ears? Well, never. And so, year after year, their ear wax builds up, layer upon layer. According to a study published Monday, these columns of ear wax contain a record of chemical pollution in the oceans.
The study used the ear wax extracted from the carcass of a blue whale that washed ashore on a California beach back in 2007. Scientists at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History collected the wax from inside the skull of the dead whale and preserved it. The column of wax was almost a foot long.
Similar to humans getting a tan, new research shows that the skin pigment of whales increases in response to sunshine.
Published in the journal Nature, the study reveals that some whale species get darker with sun exposure, incurring damage to their DNA, which accumulates with age.
Many classic books have been made into movies. One such example would be Herman Melville's Moby Dick, which has been adapted into many movies, television series, even a cartoon. The most recent film, or miniseries rather, would have to be Moby Dick, released in 1998 and starring Patrick Stewart as Captain Ahab—rather appropriate after making a memorable reference to the vengeful captain on Star Trek.
Although the plot of the story looks at Moby, a giant male sperm whale, in a ferocious light, these animals actually do not attack boats or even dare go near humans in the wild. If any do become aggressive, it because they feel threatened, wanting only defend themselves.
Sperm whales are large marine mammals that are found all over the world's oceans and are known to have the biggest brain amongst any living creature on earth. These whales are toothed whales and feed on fish, giant and colossal squids. Sperm whales even bear the battle scars of their fights with squids, whose tentacle suckers grasp onto the whale during an epic hunt.
Since their prey is found in the deepest parts of the ocean, sperm whales have to dive down to 3 kilometers or 9,800 feet, making them the deepest divers amongst all mammals. These whales communicate using clicking vocalization; this is the loudest click or sound ever produced by any animal on earth. They use sonar to navigate through the dark waters of the deep and to find food.
Sperm whales are social animals, living in groups. Young whales and female whales travel together, separate from mature male whales. Mature female whales give birth to one baby every 3 to 6 years and take care of their young for a little over 10 years. Mature sperm whales can grow to about 67 feet long and live up to 70 years. They do not have many natural predators, but groups of killer whales have been known to take down a sperm whale calf.
A touching family movie that many audiences from all over the world have enjoyed watching is Free Willy, first released in 1993. The movie tells the story of a boy and his relationship with a killer whale. The movie starts out with fishermen separating a baby killer whale from its parents. The young calf is named Willy and is placed inside a large tank, becoming an attraction at a local marina. Meanwhile, Jesse, a young street kid, gets into trouble when he is caught vandalizing the marina’s wall. However, Jesse’s social worker helps him out and asks the marina’s owner if he can waive the charges if Jesse cleans up the mess he made.
While there, Jesse becomes friends with Willy. They become very fond of each other and Jesse teaches Willy a few tricks, something Willy’s trainer has failed to achieve. The owner plans to show Willy off to an audience but Willy refuses to do his tricks. The owner becomes frustrated and decides to get rid of Willy. Jesse and his group of friends then create a plan to get Willy out of the marina and set him free.
Killer whales, also known as Orcas or blackfish, are very easy to identify with their black and white color. These whales have teeth and hunt other marine mammals like seals, sea lions, walruses and at times, even larger whales and sharks like the great white shark. However, some killer whales prefer to have a diet based on fish alone. They are considered an apex predator, which means that they lack natural predators. These big whales are usually found in different types of ocean conditions, from the freezing Antarctic and Arctic regions to warm tropical seas. They travel in groups called pods and are very protective of each other.
Narwhal is a type of whale that has a horn, narwhal fish classified as very rare, they are only found in the area waters north pole, which is precisely in the Arctic ocean, but sometimes also seen far to the east to Russia. Like other whales narwhal Narwhal also mammals and carnivorous animals, they mumpunyai teeth.
Horn
Narwhal has spiral horns that make this animal seem strange, horn-like we have seen in a unicorn (horse fiction in fiction). This makes the researchers and scientists to be curious to examine it, and note that Narwhal Horn useful to detect changes in temperature, pressure, and salinity of water, where the narwhal horn is similar to the membrane surface is very sensitive. There are approximately 10 million nerves that connect to the surface of the horn. Narwhal horn length can reach 2.4 meters and body narwhal 4-5 meters.
As with other whales, narwhal whales also use sound to communicate with each other. Scientists have long known that marine mammals use sound signals to communicate with each other in the water. Recent research even suggests that whales have their own language. However, not many recent studies on identity diguankan sound like a narwhal whales. The researchers believe narwhal whales use sound to identify each other and distinguish one individual to another individual.
Pope routine narwhal migration thousands of miles and in groups. And with different voices, each one can distinguish the individual in the group or other group. The results of this study published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America edition of September 2006.
“The anatomy of the skull is really unusual,” Jonathan Geisler, a professor of anatomy at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “I’ve not seen anything like this in any other whale, living or extinct.”
