What better way to celebrate the holiday season than with a post about all the fabulous marine mammals hanging out near the North Pole? The Arctic hosts a variety of marine mammals including eight species of pinnipeds (several seals, walruses), three cetaceans (bowhead, beluga and narwhal whales) and one fissiped (polar bears). (For me, fissiped is… [read more]
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin
Finally a dolphin that sounds easy to identify, the Atlantic spotted dolphin or Stenella frontalis must be easy to spot (no pun intended) with all the spots on its body. Oh but of course it’s not that simple, some Atlantic spotted dolphins have many spots and others not so much. According to the Encyclopedia of… [read more]
Archaeocetes: ancestors of the whales
Today’s whales, dolphins and porpoises can trace their ancestry to Archaeocetes, the name given to a group of prehistoric whales that lived 55 to 34 million years ago. However, these animals looked nothing like whales. Well I’m being overly dramatic; one looks kind of like a whale, but it not exactly. Based on the drawings… [read more]
Antarctic Marine Mammals
After a journey with the Antarctic fur seal, the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals features Antarctic marine mammals in general. These robust marine mammals live within the Antarctic convergence, an invisible natural border where the extremely cold Southern Ocean meets warmer water from the north. Most marine mammals who live further north do not cross this… [read more]
Anatomical Dissection: marine mammal anatomy 101
If you spend a lot of time wondering where exactly each organ is located in a marine mammal, then the article on anatomical dissection in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals is for you! Authors John Reynolds and Sentiel Rommel painstakingly detail every organ location, anatomical nuance and unusual characteristic known to man by describing and… [read more]
Ambergris: sperm whale intestinal goodies
Ambergris sounds like a word for a fancy French wine or dessert, but it’s actually the name for a blob of stuff that forms in the sperm whale’s large intestine or rectum. According to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammal’s article authored by Dale Rice, ambergris is actually an Old French word meaning “gray amber.” Apparently,… [read more]
Amazon River Dolphin: the pink dolphin
The Amazon River dolphin or Inia geoffrensisis is known locally in Brazil as boto or botovermelho. Vera da Silva, author of the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals’ article, seems to prefer this name. Throughout the article the dolphin is referred to as “the boto.” Good nicknames for the boto could be Pepto Bismo or the Mary Kay crusader… [read more]
Albino Marine Mammals: the ghosts of the sea
According to the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals, albinos have been spotted in 28 species of marine mammals. This number breaks down to 21 cetaceans and seven pinnipeds with albinos among their ranks. Albinos are most well known for their white or very pale coloring and pink eyes or at least that’s what I thought. But according… [read more]
Aggressive Behavior in Marine Mammals: can’t we all just get along
Reading the article on aggressive behavior in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals is a serious downer. Don’t get me wrong, most of the information is standard wild animal behavior, which the author, Claudio Campagna, nicely summarizes in the introduction. “Aggressive or agonistic behaviors represent a conglomerate of social responses, including male disputes over territorial boundaries, female fights to protect… [read more]
Age Estimation in Marine Mammals: the answer lies in a dolphin’s smile
Ah, the question we all wonder at one time or another. How old or how young is a certain person? Humans are tricky subjects for age guessing depending on race, sun exposure, dyed hair, plastic surgery and general health upkeep. Unless you are willing to just ask and make it easy; assuming whoever it is tells you… [read more]