News tagged with whales
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 ...
May 23, 2012 |
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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 ...
Mar 07, 2012 |
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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 ...
Dec 15, 2011 |
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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.
Jul 27, 2011 |
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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 ...
May 31, 2012 |
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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 ...
May 09, 2012 |
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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 ...
Apr 18, 2012 |
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How to make high-end perfumes without whale barf
University of British Columbia researchers have identified a gene in balsam fir trees that could facilitate cheaper and more sustainable production of plant-based fixatives and scents used in the fragrance industry and reduce ...
Apr 05, 2012 |
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Ancient whale species sheds new light on its modern relatives
Beluga whales and narwhals live solely in the cold waters of the Arctic and sub-arctic. Smithsonian scientists, however, found that this may not have always been the case. They recently described a new species ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Mar 22, 2012 |
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Basketball-sized eyes help squids play defense
Giant and colossal squids have eyes as big as basketballs, and a Duke scientist thinks he knows why.
Mar 15, 2012 |
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Genetic survey of endangered Antarctic blue whales shows surprising diversity
More than 99 percent of Antarctic blue whales were killed by commercial whalers during the 20th century, but the first circumpolar genetic study of these critically endangered whales has found a surprisingly ...
Mar 07, 2012 |
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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.
Feb 29, 2012 |
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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 ...
Feb 15, 2012 |
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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.
Feb 15, 2012 |
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Study finds southern Indian Ocean humpbacks singing different tunes
A recently published study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and others reveals that humpback whales on both sides of the southern Indian Ocean are singing different tunes, unusual since humpbacks in the ...
Feb 01, 2012 |
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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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
