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News tagged with whales

UCLA life scientists view biodiversity through a whole new dimension

(Phys.org) -- How can blue whales, the largest animals on the planet, survive by feeding on krill, shrimp-like creatures that are the size of a penny? According to UCLA life scientists, it's all a matter of ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 31, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Newly discovered sensory organ in the chin of baleen whales allows them to be world's largest hunters

Lunge feeding in rorqual whales (a group that includes blue, humpback and fin whales) is unique among mammals, but details of how it works have remained elusive. Now, scientists from the Smithsonian Institution ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 23, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Wild brown bear observed using a tool

(PhysOrg.com) -- Because brown bears are so reclusive, not to mention dangerous to be around, not a lot is really known about their brain power. This is actually rather odd because bears have the largest brains ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Mar 07, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (12) | comments 20 | with audio podcast report

Taiwan uses DNA mapping to save endangered sharks

Taiwan has begun testing DNA from shark fins sold in local markets in a bid to protect endangered species such as great whites and whale sharks, an official from the Fisheries Agency said Wednesday.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 23, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Whale population size, dynamics determined based on ancient DNA

Estimates of whale population size based on genetics versus historical records diverge greatly, making it difficult to fully understand the ecological implications of the large-scale commercial whaling of the 19th and early ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created May 09, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Experiments explain why almost all multicellular organisms begin life as a single cell

Any multicellular animal, from a blue whale to a human being, poses a special difficulty for the theory of evolution. Most of the cells in its body will die without reproducing, and only a privileged few will ...

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Dec 15, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (11) | comments 7 | with audio podcast

Giant kraken lair discovered

Long before whales, the oceans of Earth were roamed by a very different kind of air-breathing leviathan. Snaggle-toothed ichthyosaurs larger than school buses swam at the top of the Triassic Period ocean food ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 10, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (40) | comments 66 | with audio podcast

German engineers mimic humpback whale to increase helicopter stability

(PhysOrg.com) -- Whale researchers have known for some time that humpback whales are able to perform feats of underwater acrobatics that belie their huge size and that some of that ability is partly due to ...

Technology / Engineering

created Feb 01, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (13) | comments 5 | with audio podcast report

Meat eating led to earlier weaning, helped humans spread across globe

When early humans became carnivores, their higher-quality diet allowed mothers to wean babies earlier and have more children, with potentially profound effects on population dynamics and the course of human evolution, according ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Apr 18, 2012 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists hope OSU whale-tracking data can reduce accidental deaths

(Phys.org) -- A multi-agency team of scientists has launched a project to reduce the number of whales killed from ship strikes and entanglement in fishing nets by identifying high-risk areas along the West ...

Biology / Ecology

created May 22, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Sea lions fuel ocean life

Like whales, sea lions are contributing to marine ecosystems in the most fundamental way possible, research by a Flinders graduate has found.

Biology / Ecology

created May 15, 2012 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Blainville’s beaked whales go silent at the surface

A new study published in the journal Marine Mammal Science revealed how Blainville’s beaked whales go completely silent in an apparent stealth mode when they near the surface in an effort to avoid predators.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jul 27, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

Goat kids can develop accents

The ability to change vocal sounds (vocal plasticity) and develop an accent is potentially far more widespread in mammals than previously believed, according to new research on goats from Queen Mary, University ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 15, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Rare whale caught on film for first time

Australian researchers Thursday revealed they had filmed a pod of extremely rare Shepherd's beaked whales for the first time ever.

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Feb 23, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (39) | comments 2

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

Whale

Whales are marine mammals of order Cetacea which are neither dolphins—members, in other words, of the families Delphinidae or Platanistoidae—nor porpoises. They include the blue whale, the largest living animal. Orcas, colloquially referred to as "killer whales", and pilot whales have whale in their name but for the purpose of biological classification they are actually dolphins. For centuries whales have been hunted for meat and as a source of valuable raw materials. By the middle of the 20th century, large-scale industrial whaling had left many species seriously endangered.

For more information about Whale, read the full article at Wikipedia.
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