Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Female beaked whales' teeth are hidden in the gums and are not visible, and most male beaked whales have only two short tusks. Narwhals have vestigial teeth other than their tusk, which is present on males and 15% of females and has millions of nerves to sense water temperature, pressure and salinity.
Whales have two flippers on the front, and a tail fin. These flippers contain four digits. Although whales do not possess fully developed hind limbs, some, such as the sperm whale and bowhead whale, possess discrete rudimentary appendages, which may contain feet and digits.
The skeleton of a bowhead whale with the hind limb and pelvic bone structure circled in red. This bone structure stays internal during the entire life of the species. Limblessness in cetaceans does not represent a regression of fully formed limbs nor the absence of limb bud initiation, but rather arrest of limb bud development. [64]
Whales and their relatives have a soft tissue flipper that encases most of the forelimb, and elongated digits with an increased number of phalanges. [9] Hyperphalangy is an increase in the number of phalanges beyond the plesiomorphic mammal condition of three phalanges-per-digit. [ 10 ]
Baleen whales have two flippers on the front, near the head. Like all mammals, baleen whales breathe air and must surface periodically to do so. Their nostrils, or blowholes, are situated at the top of the cranium. Baleen whales have two blowholes, as opposed to toothed whales which have one.
Anatomy of the bottlenose dolphin Features of a sperm whale skeleton. Toothed whales have torpedo-shaped bodies with usually inflexible necks, limbs modified into flippers, no outer ears, a large tail fin, and bulbous heads (with the exception of the sperm whale family). Their skulls have small eye orbits, long beaks (with the exception sperm ...
Beaked whales have several anatomical adaptations to deep diving: large spleens, livers, and body shape. Most cetaceans have small spleens. However, beaked whales have much larger spleens than delphinids, and may have larger livers, as well. These anatomical traits, which are important for filtering blood, could be adaptations to deep diving.
Cartilaginous fish, such as sharks and rays, have jaws and skeletons made of cartilage rather than bone. Megalodon is an extinct species of shark that lived about 28 to 1.5 Ma. It looked much like a stocky version of the great white shark , but was much larger with fossil lengths reaching 20.3 metres (67 ft). [ 10 ]