Search Tools | The Institute for Creation Research Spiny Sea Creature Rapidly Accommodates Chemical Changes - Jun 26, 2013 /article/spiny-sea-creature-rapidly-accommodates Brian Thomas, M.S. - ... to more acidic sea water.2 How did the small, spiny sea creatures respond to the challenge? Claims of massive species loss through anthropocentric climate change often assume that creatures are fragile and poised for extinction. Some are... Every Creature Under Heaven - May 28, 2014 /article/8002 Henry M. Morris, Ph.D. - ... gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.” (Colossians 1:23) Before the Lord ascended back to heaven, He commanded His disciples to “preach the... Four-Winged Dinosaur Definition Doesn't Fly - Jul 30, 2014 /article/four-winged-dinosaur-definition-doesnt Brian Thomas, M.S. - ... a pair of hind wings, making this the largest four-winged creature yet found in fossils.

It looks as though the unique creature could run, walk, or fly by using its dual-function hind limbs as either legs or wings. Now, evolutionary... The frilled shark . . . is still a shark - Feb 2, 2015 /article/frilled-still-shark Frank Sherwin, M.A. - ... Chlamydoselachus, belonging to Order Hexanchiformes), this creature was thought to be 80 million years old.1 It looks mighty frightening, but is it truly "prehistoric" and somehow linked to shark evolution? In 1884, American... Honey Bee Orphan Genes Sting Evolution - Feb 19, 2015 /article/honey-bee-orphan-genes-sting-evolution Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D. - ... novelty, unique traits specific to a single type of creature. Many creatures possess similar sets of genes that produce proteins with similar biochemical functions. Common genetic code would be a predicted feature of purposefully... Clever Construction in Rorqual Whales - May 14, 2015 /article/clever-construction-rorqual-whales Brian Thomas, M.S. - ...

in the jaw of a rorqual whale—the world's largest creature. Rorqual whales, which include the blue whale and fin whale, feed by ballooning out folds of tissue that bag gobs of krill from fertile ocean waters. Some of those researchers... Jesus Lizard Runs on Water, Tramples Evolution - Aug 6, 2015 /article/jesus-lizard-runs-water-tramples-evolution Brian Thomas, M.S. - forces could have manipulated without disrupting the evolving creature's essential functions. A newly discovered fossil of a Jesus lizard in Wyoming shows just the opposite evidence. Jack Conrad, a resident research associate of vertebrate... 'Living Fossils' Point to Recent Creation - Sep 21, 2015 /article/living-fossils-point-recent-creation Brian Thomas, M.S. - ... to Genesis 1:21, “God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind.” The creation of original, distinct creature kinds confronts the evolutionary... The Firstborn of Every Creature - Feb 27, 2016 /article/9127 Henry M. Morris, Ph.D. - ...

is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.” (Colossians 1:15) A widespread cult heresy based on this verse claims that Jesus Christ was not eternal but merely the first being created—perhaps an... Day Five—Sea Cucumbers to Sea Monsters - Jul 25, 2016 /article/day-five Henry M. Morris III, D.Min. - ... about different types of skin and scales? And what kind of creature was Leviathan? Other episodes in this series: Introduction and Day One—The Tri-Universe Day Two—The Firmament Day Three—Land and... The 1848 ‘Enormous Serpent’ of the Daedalus Identified - CSI Skeptic Authors Steven Salzberg and Joe Nickell to Receive Balles Prize in Critical Thinking June 14, 2013 Forbes columnist Steven Salzberg and author-investigator Joe Nickell will each be awarded the 2012 Robert P. Balles Prize in Critical Thinking, to be presented by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry at the CFI Summit in October.

The 1848 ‘Enormous Serpent’ of the Daedalus Identified Skeptical Inquirer Volume 39.5, September/October 2015 Figure 1: An iconic drawing of the Daedalus animal, as published in The Illustrated London News. This was produced by a professional artist with advice from Captain M'Quhae. Figure 2: Two more drawings ("A" above and "B" below) by M'Quhae's artist, as as published in The Illustrated London News. Note the ridges on the head. The sea serpent was once little more than a monster of Norwegian folklore. During the nineteenth century, various supposed sightings of the creature—mainly in the Atlantic—lent it some public and scientific credibility as a real animal (Heuvelmans 1968). A particularly influential sighting occurred from the British naval vessel Daedalus in 1848. There is no doubt that something remarkable passed by that ship on an August afternoon, and the Daedalus case has remained one of the most famous and puzzling maritime mysteries.

We have the advantage today of greater knowledge of large marine vertebrates than was available at the time, and we have two important contemporary drawings by a Daedalus witness that were not published until 1997. The Daedalus animal can finally be identified. The Monster Mystery On August 6, 1848, at about 5 pm, the frigate H.M.S. Daedalus encountered what its captain, P. M’Quhae, later described in a published official report (M’Quhae 1848a) as an enormous serpent, at least sixty feet long. This occurred in the South Atlantic, some 300 miles from the coast of present day Namibia. Three professional drawings of the animal (The Illustrated London News 1848; reproduced in Figures 1 and 2 here), authorized by Captain M’Quhae, were published. An excerpt for the day of the encounter from the diary of Lt. E.A. Drummond (1848) was also published, and a correspondent claiming to be an officer of the Daedalus later gave a basically confirmatory account (‘An Officer . . .’ 1858).

Finally—and unexpectedly—in 1997, M. Drummond provided drawings (Figure 3) of the creature from Lt. Drummond’s diary, via a communication to The Log of Mystic Seaport (Dash 2010). These drawings provide important clues about the Daedalus animal. So, exactly what did the witnesses describe? M’Quhae (1848a) wrote that: . . . in latitude 24° 44’ S., and longitude 9° 22’ E., the weather dark and cloudy, wind fresh from the N.W., with a long ocean swell from the S.W., the ship on the port tack heading N.E. by N., something very unusual was seen by Mr. Sartoris, midshipman, rapidly approaching the ship from before the beam. . . .

On our attention being called to the object it was discovered to be an enormous serpent, with head and shoulders kept about four feet constantly above the surface of the sea, and as nearly as we could approximate by comparing it with the length of what our maintopsail yard would show in the water, there was at the very least 60 feet of the animal à fleur d’eau, no portion of which was, to our perception, used in propelling it through the water, either by vertical or horizontal undulation. It passed rapidly, but so close under our lee quarter that had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily recognized his features with the naked eye; and it did not, either in approaching the ship or after it had passed our wake, deviate in the slightest degree from its course to the S.W., which it held on at the pace of from 12 to 15 miles per hour, apparently on some determined purpose.

The diameter of the serpent was about 15 or 16 inches behind the head, which was, without any doubt, that of a snake; and it was never, during the twenty minutes that it continued in sight of our glasses, once below the surface of the water: its colour a dark brown, with yellowish white about the throat. It had no fins, but something like the mane of a horse, or rather a bunch of seaweed, washed about its back. M’Quhae (1848b) later added that the animal had a flat head. It would have been difficult to write a report much more effective in public impact. The phraseology is rather concise, yet not without drama; “On our attention being called to the object it was discovered to be an enormous serpent” engenders the same sort of shivery feeling as does Arthur Conan Doyle’s (1902) famous line “Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!” And consider the convincing power of “had it been a man of my acquaintance I should have easily recognized his features with the naked eye.” Drummond (1848), for his part, wrote that: . . .

we observed a most remarkable fish on our lee quarter, crossing the stern in a S.W. direction: the appearance of its head, which, with the back fin, was the only portion of the animal visible, was long, pointed, and flattened at the top, perhaps ten feet in length, the upper jaw projecting considerably; the fin was perhaps twenty feet in the rear of the head, and visible occasionally: the captain also asserted that he saw the tail, or another fin, about the same distance behind it: the upper part of the head and shoulders appeared of a dark brown colour, and beneath the under jaw a brownish white. It pursued a steady undeviating course, keeping its head horizontal with the surface of the water and in rather a raised position, disappearing occasionally beneath a wave for a very brief interval, and not apparently for purposes of respiration. It was going at the rate of perhaps from twelve to fourteen miles an hour and when nearest was perhaps one hundred yards distant: in fact it gave one quite the idea of a large snake or eel. No one in the ship has ever seen anything similar, so it is at least extraordinary. It was visible to the naked eye for five minutes, and with a glass for perhaps fifteen more.

The weather was dark and squally at the time, with some sea running. One Drummond drawing (Figure 3B) includes annotations of a length of seven feet for the visible anterior part of the animal, and of thirty feet for the distance between that portion and the top of the dorsal fin. Note that the “tail, or another fin” shown in the drawing is based on hearsay from M’Quhae. The anonymous ‘Officer’ (1858) wrote that the animal was moving at probably not less than ten miles per hour, that water was surging under its chest, that it was not more than 200 yards away at its closest position, that it was in sight for about ten minutes, and that “the eye, the mouth, the nostril, the colour and form” were all distinctly visible. It should be noted that he was writing nearly a decade after the event, and may have been influenced by the writings and authorized drawings of his captain.

Monster Candidates Suggestions as to the identity of the Daedalus entity have included an adult of a deep sea teleost fish (referenced to an unnamed source by Cogswell 1848), a land snake swimming at sea (Ibid.), a surviving plesiosaur (‘F.G.S.’ 1848), an undiscovered chondrichthyan fish (Mantell 1848), more specifically an undiscovered elongate shark (Melville 1848), an elephant seal (Owen 1848), a giant seaweed (The Geelong Advertiser 1849), an oarfish (Hawtaigne 1860), an undiscovered giant eel (Gosse 1864), an undiscovered greatly elongated whale (Gosse 1864), more specifically a surviving zeuglodont (Wood 1880), a giant squid (Lee 1883), an undiscovered long-necked seal (Oudemans 1892), an undiscovered giant salamander (Burr 1934), and an abandoned canoe being towed by a harpooned, submerged

 whale shark (de Camp and Crook de Camp 1968).

None of these authors had access to the revelatory Drummond drawings (Figure 3) that depict a quite long-snouted creature with a dorsal fin. Drummond’s drawings nicely match his description of the animal’s head as “long, pointed, and flattened at the top.” As noted by Dash (2010), the data derived from Drummond’s diary are of particular importance due to contemporaneity. In contrast, M’Quhae’s report was written more than two months later, during which stretch of time memories can change. M’Quhae referred to a sketch made shortly after the sighting, but the iconic drawings in The Illustrated London News were not produced until October, and we do not know to what extent they resemble the original sketch, or how detailed that sketch was. M’Quhae’s account seems to imply that the animal came very close to the ship, as indeed is shown in one of the drawings he authorized (Figure 1). But another of those drawings (Figure 2B), and the accounts of both Drummond and the “Officer,” are in agreement that the animal was much farther away at closest approach.

(Drummond wrote that it was perhaps 100 yards away; the “Officer” wrote that it was not more than 200 yards away.) Moreover, there was poor light during the sighting; the weather was described as “dark and cloudy” by M’Quhae and as “dark and squally” by Drummond. Thus M’Quhae’s comment on naked-eye observable detail was surely an exaggeration. Nonetheless, the witnesses had substantial time to view the animal and had telescopes to magnify the view. Drummond did not perceive the expanse of body surface shown in M’Quhae’s drawings (Figures 1 and 2B); rather, he saw the “head, which, with the back fin, was the only portion of the animal visible.” M’Quhae wrote that the animal’s head was never beneath the surface; this is contradicted by Drummond’s statement that the head occasionally disappeared “beneath a wave.” But their accounts agree that the animal was swimming along with its head fully out of the water much of the time. This behavior is not typical of large marine vertebrates swimming in the open ocean.

Figure 3: Drawings ("A" above and "B" below) of the Daedalus animal from the diary of Lt. Drummond, as published in The Log of the Mystic Seaport. Note the long, flat head. Figure 4: A sei whale in lateral view during surface skim feeding, from website Shetland Environment. Note similarity in profile to the Daedalus animal as depicted by Drummond. This photo was taken by George Graham and is his intellectual property. Figure 5: The same sei whale viewed from behind, from website Shetland Environment. Note the ridges on the head. This photo was taken by George Graham and is his intellectual property. Figure 6: The same sei whale in lateral view during skim feeding, from website Shetland Environment. Note the long, flat upper head. This photo was taken by George Graham and is his intellectual property. But suppose that what seemed to be the whole head was actually only partial, with the mouth open and the lower jaw underwater. Some baleen whales swim in this manner while skimming small organisms from the ocean surface; the whale’s body and lower jaw are beneath the surface, while the upper jaw projects at an angle.

In true skim feeding, at or below the surface, there is unidirectional water flow between the two baleen racks (located beneath the upper jaw) over much of their length, with filtration by baleen bristles, and with outward water flow between baleen plates. In the Daedalus case, the baleen, or part thereof, may have been mistaken for the lower jaw. Drummond mentioned, and illustrated (Figure 3A), that the apparent upper jaw was overshot, which can also be seen in M’Quhae’s close-up view (Figure 2A). This aspect conforms nicely to the relationship between the tip of a whale upper jaw and the forward limit of the baleen beneath it (Figure 4). Perhaps, then, the Daedalus creature was a rorqual baleen whale feeding at the surface. It is easy to understand how the flat, triangular rorqual upper head (Figures 4 to 6), with its more reptilian than mammalian general appearance, could have been mistaken for the head of a snake by M’Quhae.

And his conviction that the animal was a snake may have influenced aspects of his artist’s drawings (Figures 1 and 2). The snake-like eye depicted may have been based on some blemish or shadow effect seen on the whale’s head; the real eye would have been located at the extreme lateral extension of the head, and often underwater. On the other hand, M’Quhae may have glimpsed the real eye, without accurate clarity as to its placement. M’Quhae’s close-up of the head (Figure 2A) depicts a ridge that seems to run parallel to the midline anteriorly and then splits posteriorly into two branches, producing a Y shape overall. This ridge (actually located right on the midline) is found in rorquals, the blowholes being located within the two angled posterior branches (Figure 5). No spouting was mentioned by the Daedalus witnesses. However, exhalation during surface skim feeding can produce merely a low cloud of droplets, potentially mistakable for spray from movement or from wave impact. The rather different Drummond and M’Quhae depictions of the Daedalus animal can be reconciled reasonably under the rorqual hypothesis.

In lateral profile in surface skimming stance (Figures 4 and 6), a rorqual upper head looks long, flat, and pointed, greatly resembling Drummond’s contemporary drawings (Figure 3). But when seen from behind (Figure 5), as when the Daedalus animal was moving away from the ship, a rorqual upper head can look relatively short and blunt, and somewhat constricted at the back, a perspective that may have influenced the later M’Quhae depictions (Figures 1 and 2). Can the type of rorqual seen from the Daedalus be identified? One species should be considered mainly due to the shape of its dorsal fin. M’Quhae mentioned a seaweed-like mane on the Daedalus animal (reminiscent, notably, of the sea serpent’s mane in Norwegian folklore), and his artist depicted (Figures 1 and 2B) two low, narrow ridges of shaggy material, one being located at the posterior end of the visible part of the creature.

Drummond referred to an occasionally visible “back fin” presumably corresponding to the more anterior ridge shown by M’Quhae’s artist, and drew this (Figure 3B) as a low dorsal fin with a gently concave rear edge. The fin drawn by Drummond is most similar to the “stepped” dorsal fin of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), a species that could easily have been present in early August at the Daedalus location. There are, however, difficulties in attempting to identify the Daedalus animal as a humpback. The large sensory nodules adorning the head seem unlikely to have gone unnoticed (though one of them could have been mistaken for an eye). The behavioral difficulty is greater. Humpbacks consuming fish have been observed slowly and briefly moving forward with the upper jaw above the surface and the mouth widely open (Stamation et al. 2007). But a humpback moving steadily for a lengthy period, in a position like that of the Daedalus animal, would seemingly have been engaging in maladaptive behavior.

The baleen racks, with their relatively short plates, would have been largely out of the water, ruling out true surface skim feeding on tiny organisms. Perhaps a humpback was engaging in anomalous behavior that day in 1848, but the humpback is not the preferred candidate for the Daedalus creature. Happily, there is a rorqual species of appropriate size and color that possesses an appropriately contoured head, that sometimes engages in steady surface skim feeding, and that could easily have been present at the sighting location in early August: the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis). The sei (pronounced “say”) whale has anatomical adaptations for opportunistically feeding in skimming mode (Brodie and Vikingsson 2009). The typical angle the upper head makes with the ocean surface during surface skim feeding (Figures 4 to 6) is that drawn by Drummond (Figure 3) for the Daedalus creature. The sei is a slender whale, usually between forty and fifty-five feet in length when fully grown, and dorsally mainly gray to dark brown in color.

Most of the baleen plates are mainly dark (Figure 4), but many can be distally whitish, and all the bristles are whitish or white, which explains the reported color of the underside of the Daedalus creature’s “under jaw.” M’Quhae, at least, seems to have taken the darker proximal parts of the plates to have been part of the upper jaw. A sei whale usually possesses a sickle-shaped dorsal fin, small but prominent. The dorsal fin (unlike the head) of the Daedalus animal was only occasionally visible, and viewing conditions were far from ideal; perhaps only the tip of the fin was dragging at the surface, making its shape difficult to ascertain. Alternately, the fin may have been in damaged or otherwise unusual condition. An interesting photograph (Engblom 2011) shows a possible sei whale with a low, flat dorsal fin. Many baleen whales bear damage of one sort or another from past orca attacks. If a more stereotypical cetacean dorsal fin had been noted, perhaps the Daedalus whale would never have been reported as a giant serpent.

A classic maritime mystery seems solved: The animal seen from the frigate Daedalus on that fateful winter day in 1848 was almost certainly a rorqual whale feeding at the surface with its mouth open. That would presumably constitute a puzzling sight for many mariners of either the nineteenth or the twenty-first century. Acknowledgements This research has involved a confluence of mystery investigation and science. It is therefore particularly appropriate to dedicate this paper to my mother, Ruthie E. Weber Galbreath, who loved mystery stories and their solutions, and to my father, Donald H. Galbreath, a fine engineer with scientific training. I thank the noted natural history writer Sy M. Montgomery for comments on the evolving manuscript. The wonderful sei whale photographs in Figures 4 to 6 were downloaded from Shetland Environment ( shetlandenvironment.createaforum.com ); they are the intellectual property of the photographer, George Graham. References ‘An Officer of Her Majesty’s ship Daedalus.’ 1858. The Times (February 16). Brodie, P., and G. Vikingsson. 2009. On the feeding mechanisms of the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis).

Journal of Northwest Atlantic Fishery Science 42: 49–54. Burr, Malcolm. 1934. Sea-serpents and monsters. Nineteenth Century 115(684): 220–230. Cogswell, C. 1848. Pages 2316–2323 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Dash, Mike. 2010. Our artist pictures what the witness saw . . . Dry as Dust. A Fortean in the Archives. A Charles Fort Institute Blog (May 24). Online at blogs.forteana.org/node/121. de Camp, L. Sprague, and Catherine Crook de Camp. 1968. The Day of the Dinosaur. Modern Literary Editions Publishing Co., New York. Doyle, Arthur C. 1902. The Hound of the Baskervilles. George Newnes, Ltd., London. Drummond, Edgar. 1848.

Pages 2306–2307 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Engblom, Gunnar. 2011. Online at kolibriexpeditions.com/birdingperu/ blog/whale-watching-in-peru/ . 'F.G.S.' 1848. Page 2311 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Gosse, Philip H. 1864. The Romance of Natural History. Gould and Lincoln, Boston. Hawtaigne (Captain). 1860. A sea serpent in the Bermudas. The Zoologist 18: 6934–6935. Heuvelmans, Bernard. 1968. In the Wake of the Sea-Serpents. Hill and Wang, New York. Lee, Henry. 1883. Sea Monsters Unmasked. William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., London.

Mantell, Gideon A. 1848. Page 2310 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Melville, A.G. 1848. Page 2310 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. M’Quhae, Peter. 1848a. Pages 2307–2308 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. 1848b. Pages 2323–2324 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Oudemans, A.C., Jr. 1892. The Great Sea-Serpent. E.J. Brill, Leiden, Netherlands. Owen, Richard.

1848. The great sea-serpent. Pages 2312–2316 in “The Great Sea-Serpent” section, edited by E. Newman, The Zoologist 6: 2306–2324. Stamation, Kasey A., David B. Croft, Peter D. Shaughnessy, et al. 2007. Observations of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) feeding during their southward migration along the coast of southeastern New South Wales, Australia: Identification of a possible supplemental feeding ground. Aquatic Mammals 33(2): 165–174. The Geelong Advertiser. 1849. The great sea snake. In The Geelong Advertiser 9 (1015). Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The Illustrated London News. 1848. The great sea-serpent—evidences of the former appearances of the sea-serpent—the great American sea-serpent. (October 28). Wood, Searles V., Jr. 1880. Order Zeuglodontia. Nature (November 18).

Size Baleen whales are some of the world's largest animals. In the ocean, water helps support an animal's body weight, allowing for the potential for greater size than on land. In general, females are about 5 percent longer than males of the same species. Baleen whales of the northern hemisphere are usually slightly smaller than their counterparts in the southern hemisphere. And some whale stocks can be larger or smaller than other stocks of the same species. For example, sei whales reach 20 m (65 ft.) in the southern hemisphere, 18.6 m (61 ft.) in the North Pacific, and 17.3 m (57 ft.) in the North Atlantic. Large size has many adaptive advantages. Large size decreases an animal's surface-to-body ratio, which helps a mammal retain body heat. In general, larger animals are safer from predators and are better able to compete for mates. Large size allows whales to take advantage of seasonal high food productivity. They are able to eat enormous amounts at a time - more calories than they use - and store that energy in the form of blubber. The largest whale - in fact, the largest animal, living or extinct - is the blue whale.

Average length for Antarctic blue whales is about 25 m (82 ft.) for males and 27 m (89 ft.) for females. (Note: this average does not include measurements taken for a possible "pygmy" subspecies, Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda). Blue whales in the northern hemisphere are slightly smaller. Record size for a blue whale - for a specimen taken during the whaling years - is 34 m (112 ft.). Another record-size individual weighed 190,000 kg (419,000 lb.). Pygmy right whales are among the smallest baleen whales. Adult females reach lengths of 6.5 m (21 ft.), and adult males may reach 6.1 m (20 ft.). This species is rarely recorded, so details of its size are poorly documented. Body Shape The general body shape of baleen whales is roughly cylindrical but tapering at both ends. This characteristic fusiform shape is quite energy efficient for swimming. Compared to other body shapes, this body shape creates less drag (the opposing force an object generates as it travels through water).

Coloration Most baleen whales exhibit skin color variations of black and gray. Some are countershaded: a type of protective coloration in which the dorsal (top) surface is darker than the ventral (underneath) surface. When lighting is from above, the animal appears inconspicuous. Blue whales are named for a steel blue-gray skin color. Minke, humpback, bowhead, and fin whales are distinctively colored. Northern hemisphere minke whales have a band of white across the otherwise black flippers. Individuals in the southern hemisphere may or may not have the flipper band. Humpback whales are black or gray except for their flippers and the undersides of their flukes, which are white. Bowhead whales are dark gray to black except for a white chin. A fin whale's head is asymmetrically colored. The right lower lip is white, and the rest of the head is black or gray. Fin whales also have a grayish white chevron-shaped mark on their backs. External parasites and algae growing on a whale's skin affect the coloration of some species. Blue whales sometimes exhibit a yellowish ventral surface, a result of diatom growth.

(Diatoms are one-celled algae.) Barnacles and whale lice give a gray whale its characteristic mottled, light gray color. Some species, such as gray whales and sei whales, have white or faintly-colored marks or scars. Barnacle growth, shark or killer whale bites, and natural pigmentation differences can create these markings. Pectoral Flippers Pectoral flippers are a whale's forelimbs. They have all the skeletal elements of the forelimbs of terrestrial mammals, but they’re foreshortened and modified into paddle-shaped appendages. The skeletal elements are rigidly supported by connective tissue: thick cartilage pads lie lengthwise between the bones. Pectoral flippers are an adaptation for swimming. Whales use their pectoral flippers mainly to steer and, with the help of the flukes, to stop. Rorquals and gray whales have four digits instead of five: the thumb bones are not present. Humpback whales have pectoral flippers that are as long as one-third their body length and are a contrasting white color. Flukes The horizontal lobes of the tail of a whale are called flukes.

(Each lobe is called a fluke.) Flukes are flattened pads of tough, fibrous connective tissue, completely without bone or muscle. Longitudinal muscles of the back and caudal peduncle move the flukes up and down. Hind Limbs In baleen whales, the only traces of hind limbs are two reduced, rod-shaped pelvic bones. These non-functional bones are buried deep in body muscle, not connected to the vertebral column. Dorsal Fin Rorquals and the pygmy right whale have a fin on top called a dorsal fin. Like the flukes, the dorsal fin is made of dense, fibrous connective tissue, with no bones. Dorsal fins are often scarred or marked. Photos of baleen whale dorsal fins can be used for photo-identification. A humpback whale has a small dorsal fin on top of a hump. The shape varies among humpback whales. Other rorquals have a backward-curving (falcate) dorsal fin, about two-thirds of the way toward the tail flukes. Dorsal fins can be about 25 to 60 cm (1-2 ft.) tall, depending on the species.

Right, bowhead, and gray whales have no dorsal fin. Gray whales have a dorsal hump followed by a series of bumps. Head Right whales have huge heads - one-fourth to one-third the body length. In right whales, all seven neck vertebrae are fused, and right whales are incapable of side-to-side head movement. A right whale's elongated upper jaw bones arch to house extremely long baleen. The lower jaw line is sharply upward-curved in profile. Encrusting, yellow-white growths on the head, jaws, and blowhole areas of right whales are called callosities. Accumulations of natural markings such as these aid researchers in photo-identification studies. A rorqual has a broad, flat rostrum and a slightly curved jaw line. Unfused neck vertebrae allow for some flexibility at the head and neck. Some species have ridges on the rostrum and a V- or U-shape to the tip of the snout. A humpback whale has several knobs on its head. A gray whale has a narrow head with a slight curve to the jaw line. Unfused neck vertebrae allow for some flexibility at the head and neck. Blowhole.

In whales, the nasal openings (nostrils) are at the top of the head. The nasal opening of a whale is called a blowhole. Baleen whales have two blowholes. Just as our nostrils lead to an air passage that leads to our trachea and then our lungs, a baleen whale's blowholes lead to an air passage that leads to its trachea and then its lungs. Each blowhole is covered by a muscular flap. In a relaxed position, the muscular flap provides a water-tight seal. Baleen In the mouth of a baleen whale, stiff plates of keratin grow down from the gums of the upper jaw. These plates are called baleen. They grow in rows on each side of the mouth. Keratin is a fibrous protein that also composes hair and fingernails. It is strong yet somewhat elastic. Like our hair and fingernails, it grows throughout a whale's lifetime, and the ends continually wear off. Baleen plates range in color from black to yellow or white, depending on the species. The outer edge of each plate is smooth. The inner edge is frayed.

The frayed inner edges of the plates intertwine to form a mat. Baleen plates arise in a whale fetus as thickenings of skin on the upper jaw. Right whales have the longest baleen. Bowhead whales are particularly known for their long baleen plates, which reach lengths of 4 m (13 ft.). Bowhead whales typically have 230 to 360 baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Gray whales have about 130 to 180 baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Each plate is about 5 to 25 cm (2-10 in.) long. In the rorqual family, baleen size ranges from the blue whale's 91-cm (3-ft.) baleen plates to the minke whale's 12 to 20 cm (5 to 8 in.) baleen plates. Blue whales typically have 260 to 400 baleen plates on each side of the upper jaw. Minke whales have about 230 to 360 on each side. Baleen is an adaptation for filter-feeding.

Parasitic copepods, nematodes, and protozoans can infest a whale's baleen plates. Baleen whales do not have teeth. They do develop tooth buds during the embryonic stage, but these tooth buds disappear before birth. Although baleen is not bone tissue, it is sometimes referred to as "whalebone". Baleen whales have also been known as "whalebone whales". Skin Baleen whales have smooth skin, without oil glands or pores. The epidermis is about 5 to 7 mm (0.2-0.3 in.) thick. Many species have sparse hairs on the snout, jaws, and chin. A whale's lack of fur is an adaptation for more efficient swimming: fur or hair creates drag as an animal swims. A variety of parasites can infest a baleen whale's skin. Diatoms grow on the skin of some species, including the blue whale. The diatom layer creates an olive-colored film on the skin. Gray and humpback whales are heavily infested with external parasites. Barnacles and whale "lice" (actually amphipods) attach to skin around the head, blowhole, genital area, and throat grooves.

Barnacles feed on plankton in the water. Whale lice feed on whale skin and damaged tissue such as a wound. Throat Grooves Rorqual, gray and pygmy right whales have grooves under the throat that extend to at least the pectoral flippers. Members of the rorqual family have between 25 and 100 throat grooves, depending on the species. A gray whale has between two and seven throat grooves. A pygmy right whale has just two throat grooves. Right whales do not have throat grooves. Throat grooves are folds of skin and blubber that expand during feeding, greatly increasing the volume that the whale's mouth can hold. The throat grooves fold back into a streamlined shape when a whale isn’t feeding. Whales have a sensory organ unlike anything we've ever seen Whales have a sensory organ unlike anything we've ever seen Go to permalink It's possible that whales can sense things that no other living creatures can. Scientists have discovered a grapefruit-sized mass of vessels and nervous tissues located in whales' chins, and they believe it's an entirely new kind of sensory organ.

It's possible the organ is what allows these massive creatures to eat using a lightning-fast mouth movement called "lunge feeding." Advertisement To find out more, we spoke with the study's lead researcher, paleobiologist Nick Pyenson. He says this sensory organ is just one more thing that makes whales like "mammals from space." The first thing you need to understand about baleen whales is that they're enormous. The biggest of the baleen whales are known as rorqual whales, a group that includes humpback whales, fin whales and, of course, the blue whale — the largest animal to ever live. Animals as large as rorquals obviously need plenty of food to survive. To acquire that food, they rely on their uncommonly large mouths and a technique known as lunge-feeding. When lunge-feeding, a hungry whale will accelerate to great speeds and open its mouth wide, allowing its pleated throat to expand like a parachute while taking in a giant gulp of water. The mouth then swings shut, and the whale begins the process of straining its prey through filter-like "mouth hairs" known as baleen.

Fish, krill, and various other sea creatures are caught in the baleen, and water is expelled. Advertisement We know rorquals lunge-feed because we've seen them do it . What's less clear is how they go about orchestrating the behavior, which involves the careful cooperation of several enormous anatomical structures. The scale, quickness and precision of rorqual feeding behavior is nothing short of spectacular. In today's issue of Nature a team of researchers led by paleobiologist Nick Pyenson describes the discovery of a heretofore unknown sensory organ, located in the chin of rorqual whales, that they believe is responsible for coordinating that behavior. "In blue whales, jaws can be up to six meters long, and those jaws open and close under water in les than ten seconds," explains Pyenson in an interview with io9. Speed is important, "especially if you want to capture a big swarm of krill before they disperse." But lunge feeding-involves more than opening one's mouth and blindly rushing a group of prey.

Pyenson says that a whale needs to be able to sense what's going on inside its mouth and respond to that sensation in turn, actively controlling both the state of its throat pleats and the positioning of its jaws in order to capture as much prey as possible. So when Pyenson and his colleagues happened upon a large, nerve-laden mass positioned between the jaws and throat-pleats of dissected fin and minke whales (two rorqual species), it wasn't long before they realized that the fleshy structure might be implicated in the coordination of the whales' mouth movements. Advertisement Sponsored The organ rests inside the whale's chin, in the gap between the whale's bony jaws (pictured above, click to enlarge). The structure is pinched by the jaws, explains Pyenson, "and compresses through the course of a lunge." But the organ also sits atop a y-shaped stem of fibrous cartilage that connects to the whale's throat pouch. All this is wired up to the whale's sensory nervous system.

The result is an organ that is well-placed anatomically to help control both the flexible, blubbery tissue of the whale's throat, and the bony tissue of the jaws, "coordinating both hard and soft tissue together, and linked mechanically to both sets of tissue types." What's really interesting about this find is that the organ appears to be missing from smaller whales, a fact that could point to the organ's evolutionary importance: Advertisement "In terms of evolution, the innovation of this sensory organ has a fundamental role in one of the most extreme feeding methods of aquatic creatures," said co-author Bob Shadwick. "Because the physical features required to carry out lunge-feeding evolved before the extremely large body sizes observed in today's rorquals, it's likely that this sensory organ — and its role in coordinating successful lunging — is responsible for rorquals claiming the largest-animals-on-Earth status," he explained. When we asked Pyenson if there was a human sensory process that he thought this organ could be most closely tied to, he said it was difficult to say, but was a good enough sport about it to take a shot.

The nerves and connective tissue that comprise the organ, Pyenson says, show the hallmarks of what are known as mechanoreceptors: Advertisement [Humans] have different mechanoreceptors all throughout our skin and joints that relay information about position and pressure. It's an unusual structure, and what's really unusual about it is its position. But it's not about temperature, it's not taste, it's really about movement and pressure. That's probably the closest analogy we have. The more we investigate the ocean's largest mammals, the more mind-boggling discoveries we seem to make. Pyenson notes that studies like this one are notoriously difficult to perform, and that whale anatomy is something that remains incredibly mysterious to researchers. Advertisement "Whales are like mammals from space," he explains. "they just have all these strange adaptations to living life in the water." "It's a great irony that we've hunted and studied large baleen whales for well over 100 years, and for all those thousand and thousands of whales that have ben killed, nobody's ever looked at the anatomy at this level of detail.

We are still only beginning to understand the anatomy of the largest ocean predators of all time." Advertisement The researchers' findings are published in today's issue of Nature. Top image by Duncan Murrell/Steve Bloom Images / Barcroft Media; illustrations by Carl Buell Gear from Kinja Deals What Is the Biggest Animal in the Ocean? What is the Biggest Animal in the Ocean? What is the Biggest Animal in the Ocean? A blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) spouting. This photo shows the whale's enormous blowholes. © Blue Ocean Society The ocean is home to many large animals. What is the biggest? The Biggest Animal in the Ocean The biggest animal in the ocean , and in the world, is the blue whale ( Balaenoptera musculus ), a sleek, light-colored giant. How Big is the Biggest Animal? Blue whales are thought to be the largest animal ever to live on the Earth. They reach lengths up to about 100 feet and weights of an amazing 100-150 tons. Blue whales are a type of baleen whale known as a rorqual . Despite their huge size, baleen whales like blue whales feed on small organisms.

The blue whale feeds primarily on krill, and may eat 2 to 4 tons of krill per day during their feeding season. Their skin is a beautiful gray-blue color, often with a mottling of light spots. The second-biggest animal in the ocean is another baleen whale- the fin whale . At an average length of 60-80 feet, the the fin whale is still pretty big, but not nearly as big as the blue whale. Where to Find the Biggest Animal in the Ocean Blue whales are found in all the world's ocean, but their populations are not as large as they used to be due to whaling. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World After the invention of the grenade-tipped harpoon in the late 1800's, blue whales were subjected to relentless hunting. Blue whale populations had declined so much that the species was given protection from hunting in 1966 by the International Whaling Commission . Today, there are an estimated 10,000-15,000 blue whales in the world. Blue whales are much too large to be kept in captivity.

To have a chance of seeing a blue whale in the wild, you could go on a whale watch off the coast of California, Mexico, or Canada. Other Big Ocean Animals While the blue whale and fin whale are the largest animals, the ocean has plenty of other large creatures. The largest fish (and largest shark) is the whale shark , which can grow to about 65 feet and weigh up to about 75,000 pounds. The largest jellyfish is the lion's mane jelly . It is possible that this animal could surpass the blue whale in size - some estimates say that the lion's mane jelly's tentacles can be 120 feet long. The Portuguese man o' war is not a jellyfish, but a siphonophore, and this animal also has long tentacles - it is estimated that the man o' war's tentacles can be 50 feet long. If you want to get super technical, the largest animal on the planet could be the giant siphonophore, which can grow up to 130 feet long. However, this is not really a single animal, but a colony of jelly-like zooids strung together in a long chain that drifts through the ocean.

Can't get enough of big ocean animals? You can also find a slide show of the largest living sea creatures here . References and Further Information: Marine Mammals Observation, Finback, Rorqual, Beluga Maximum age : 30 - 35 Maximum speed : 20 km/hour Unlike other species of whales, the Beluga is present in our waters throughout the year. It measures between 4,4 and 6 metres, its weigh ranging between 630 and 1500 kilograms. Upon reaching maturity, the beluga becomes completely white, while at birth it ranges from dark gray to nearly blue giving it the common name of “bleuvet”. As it ages, the skin changes to pale gray before turning bright white. They can be observed almost anywhere in the St-Lawrence as far as the Island of Ile-aux-Coudres. Belugas are found far up the fjord where they can often be seen near the Tadoussac ferry as well as around the Saint-Simeon ferry in Charlevoix. They also tend to frequent the rocks around Les Escoumins , des rochers des Escoumins and Cap-Bon-Desir.

Seals are also a common sight. They can be observed at any time along with the occasional group of dolphins. The world’s smallest whale, the Harbour Porpoise, is also plentiful near Bergeronnes, Tadoussac and Les Escoumins. The Blue Whale Essay Examples | Kibin The Blue Whale Essay Examples 369 total results A Study on the Blue Whale: The Largest Mammal on Earth The Blue Whale The blue whale or balaenoperta musclus is the largest animal to ever have lived on Earth. Whalers have reported this whale to being over 100 feet long and weighing over 150 tons! The blue whale is a mammal, because it has milk, hair, and the embryo develops in t... 289 words An Introduction to the Nature and Life of a Blue Whale The Blue whale is the largest creature of the sea, in fact, it is the largest creature known to man. Contrary to what most people think, even though Blue whales live in the sea, they are mammals. They breathe air, have their babies born alive and can live anywhere from 30 to 70 years. The Blue whale is a baleen whale, a...

1,557 words A Short Description of the Blue Whale The Blue Whale The blue whale or balaenoperta musclus is the largest animal to ever have lived on Earth. Whalers have reported this whale to being over 100 feet long and weighing over 150 tons! The blue whale is a mammal, because it has milk, hair, and the embryo develops in the mothers womb. The blue whale is a type of... 283 words The Description the Blue Whale The Blue whale is the largest creature of the sea, in fact, it is the largest creature known to man. Contrary to what most people think, even though Blue whales live in the sea, they are mammals. They breathe air, have their babies born alive and can live anywhere from 30 to 70 years. The Blue whale is a baleen whale, a... 1,473 words A Comparison Between the Northern Bottle-nosed Whale and Southern Bottle-nosed Whale THE LANDLORDS OF THE OCEAN Have you ever thought about the landlords of the oceans? There is a saying: "Big fish eats the smaller ones." The most powerful and deadly animals who taste the freedom of the sea world are whales.

So many kinds of whales exist. One of the most interesting kinds is the bottle-nosed whal... 581 words An In-depth Look at the Whale Whale weighs as much as 20 elephants but lives beneath the sea. The blue whale is Earth's largest animal. Larger than the largest of ancient dinosaurs, blue whales can grow to be more than 100 feet (30 meters) long and weigh nearly 150 tons. Not all whales are so large. The much smaller pilot whale grows to about 28... 1,034 words An Overview of Blue Whales One of World's Endangered Species The Blue Whale The blue whale or balaenoperta musclus is the largest animal to ever have lived on Earth. Whalers have reported this whale to being over 100 feet long and weighing over 150 tons! The blue whale is a mammal, because it has milk, hair, and the embryo develops in t...

283 words An Overview of the History of the Toronto Blue Jays and Their Pricing Strategies Toronto Blue Jays Issue The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team was founded in the 1970s and experienced support from the fans during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1992 and 1993, the Jays won back-to-back World Series, yet in 1994, the team faced setbacks. The team had a losing streak, there was a major league baseball strike, and... 479 words A Extensive Paper on the Humpback Whale The Humpback Whale To look up into the mountains and see the steam rolling from a mountain stream on a cold winters morning is a beautiful sight. However, to look out over the horizon and see the white spray of salt water coming from the blow of a huge hump-back whale is much more exciting sight and a whole lot warmer. I l... 1,968 words The Constant Depletion of Whale Populations in the Early Century Unless whaling is restricted, all whaling stocks will ultimately be depleted. The whale populations around the world have plummeted since the late 19th and early 20th century.

Some of these great animals have become extinct while others are in great danger of becoming extinct. The main culprit in their demise is man. Man... 1,503 words Animals in United Kingdom Animals in United Kingdom The United Kingdom is blessed with a mild climate that never lacks for moisture, and as a result the animal species there have come to depend on a never-failing supply of food. The uniquely moderate climate of the British Isles comes both from its island status and by its favorable position as the recipient of warm water from the Gulf Stream. This moderate UK weather is a double edged sword in that its native animals, accustomed as they are to abundant food supplies and mild temperatures, are hit hard by the rare weather extremes that occasionally hit the island nation. Changes in weather patterns send new species, particularly birds, to settle in the UK where they not only compete for food sources but also carry diseases unknown to native species. In addition, alien animal and plant species thrive to the detriment of native species. Non-native animals do not just arrive by accident but are sometimes purposely introduced by humans.

For, instance, the only species of squirrel native to the British Isles, the Red Squirrel (Sciurus Vulgaris), has been declining due to the introduction of the American Grey Squirrel in 1876. In addition to the red squirrel, other native mammalian species include the stout, weasel, Eurasian Badger , Scottish Reindeer, Eurasian Otter, Small Wild Cat and field mouse. The large rabbit population is not native but was introduced and naturally multiplied. Woodlands, meadows, wetlands, and heath are naturally occurring habitats in the UK. England's wetlands are especially important for the breeding of seabirds, wildfowl and wintering waders; almost 20 percent of the Atlantic/North Sea estuaries for Europe are found in England. The country also shelters a large population of bats. Besides its native species of birds, which include several members of the Shearwater family and several varieties of Puffins which belonging to the Auk family, many bird species visit the UK during migration; this making the UK a bird watchers paradise. Although the United Kingdom is home to many varieties of amphibians, the island nation's damp cool weather is generally not a reptile friendly environment.

While there are only 3 species of snake that call it home: the Adder, the Grass Snake and the Smooth Snake, there are a number of native species of lizard. Wild boar Elk Roe deer Carnivores in United Kingdom Arctic wolf Common seal Wild cat Gray seal Common otter Cross fox European pine martin Badger Ermine European polecat Brown bear Least weasel Dolphins, porpoises, and whales in United Kingdom Killer whale Atlantic dolphin Common porpoise Devil fish Long-finned pilot whale Grey dolphin False killer whale Bottlehead Pygmy sperm whale Atlantic white-sided dolphin Euphrosyne dolphin White-beaked dolphin Bottle-nosed dolphin Cuvier's beaked whale Bunch North atlantic beaked whale Blainville's beaked whale Gervais' beaked whale True's beaked whale North atlantic right whale Common minke whale Coalfish whale Blue whale Common rorqual Bats in United Kingdom World English-Language Scrabble Players Association Archive Word of the Week (112): PHYSETER (probability 21595), by David Sutton PHYSETER is an old name for the sperm whale; the word is Greek in origin, deriving from the verb physaein, to blow.

Even those of us not well versed in CETOLOGY, the study of whales, can probably name quite a few varieties of the creature. Another name for the sperm whale is CACHALOT or CACHOLOT. Then there is the RORQUAL, which is characterised by a prominent fin on its back, hence its other names of FINBACK, FINFISH or FINNER; additionally, the SEI is a type of rorqual. The white whale can be known as the BELUGA, though this name is also applied to the sturgeon. It may seem odd that two such different creatures should have the same name, but both derive from the Russian beliy, white. The Greenland whale is also known as the BOWHEAD. The California gray whale is known as the GRAYBACK or GREYBACK. Then is the killer whale, the ORC or ORCA, which can also be called the GRAMPUS, though this name is also used for Risso's dolphin. We should not forget the NARWHAL or NARWHALE with its long spiral tusk, nor the melodious HUMPBACK.

Sadly, the chance to play ZEUGLODONT, any of a genus of fossil whales, will never arise. But perhaps we can finish by sneaking in the new arrival in CSW12, the very unlikely but possible WHOLPHIN, a hybrid of whale and dolphin.

Question: What type of creature is a 'Rorqual'?
Answer: WHALE