News tagged with baleen whales

Study amplifies understanding of hearing in baleen whales

For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But until now, the hearing systems ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 17, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Dolphin whistles are unfit for porpoise

Bottlenose dolphins have whistles which they use to exclusively greet other members of their species, marine biologists in Scotland reported on Wednesday.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 29, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Fossil fish illuminates evolution of plankton-eating

Animals from very different groups that developed independently into plankton-eating giants took similar evolutionary steps along the way, new research shows.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 15, 2012 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Ship noise boosts stress in whales, 9/11 reveals: study

The steady drone of motors along busy commercial shipping lanes not only alters whale behaviour but can affect the giant sea mammals physically by causing chronic stress, a study published Wednesday has reported ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 08, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1

What do killer whales eat in the Arctic?

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are the top marine predator, wherever they are found, and seem to eat everything from schools of small fish to large baleen whales, over twice their own size. The increase in hun ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jan 30, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Ancient whale skulls and directional hearing: A twisted tale

Skewed skulls may have helped early whales discriminate the direction of sounds in water and are not solely, as previously thought, a later adaptation related to echolocation. University of Michigan researchers ...

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Aug 22, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researcher finds missing link between ancient toothed whales and modern baleen whales

(PhysOrg.com) -- Erich Fitzgerald, an Australian paleontologist, believes he has found the missing link between ancient toothed whales that caught and ate fish and modern baleen whales that eat by sucking ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Aug 18, 2011 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 13 | with audio podcast report

Humpback whales catch prey with bubble-nets

Marine biologist David Wiley of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and others report in the latest issue of Behaviour (Volume 148, Nos. 5-6) how humpback whales in the Gulf of Maine catch prey with a ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 24, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers find first genetic evidence for loss of teeth in the common ancestor of baleen whales

(PhysOrg.com) -- In contrast to a toothed whale, which retains teeth that aid in capturing prey, a living baleen whale (e.g., blue whale, fin whale, humpback, bowhead) has lost its teeth and must sift zooplankton ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Sep 29, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Australian fossil unlocks secrets to the origin of whales

Museum Victoria palaeobiologist Dr Erich Fitzgerald has made new groundbreaking discoveries into the origin of baleen whales, based on a 25 million year old fossil found near Torquay in Victoria.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Dec 22, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0