Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
[33] [40] Antarctic orcas may have pale grey to nearly white backs. [38] Some Antarctic orcas are brown and yellow due to diatoms in the water. [22] Both albino and melanistic orcas have been documented. [33] Sexual dimorphism between male (top) and female (bottom) killer whales. Pectoral fins, dorsal fin, and flukes are larger in adult males
In orcas, false killer whales, short-finned pilot whales, narwhals, and belugas, there is an unusually long post-reproductive lifespan in females. Older females, though unable to have their own children, play a key role in the rearing of other calves in the pod, and in this sense, given the costs of pregnancy especially at an advanced age ...
The parvorder of Odontocetes – the toothed whales – include sperm whales, beaked whales, orcas, dolphins and porpoises. Generally their teeth have evolved to catch fish, squid or other marine invertebrates , not for chewing them, so prey is swallowed whole.
An orca was seen balancing a salmon on its head in coastal waters in Washington state. Orcas were previously observed doing the same thing in the 1980s. It’s not clear what the behavior means ...
The family Balaenidae, the right whales, contains two genera and four species. All right whales have no ventral grooves; a distinctive head shape with a strongly arched, narrow rostrum, bowed lower jaw; lower lips that enfold the sides and front of the rostrum; and long, narrow, elastic baleen plates (up to nine times longer than wide) with fine baleen fringes.
The researchers’ analysis revealed exactly how the killer whales, often hunting as a group, subdue the whale shark. First, the orcas use their bodies to hit a whale shark at high speed.
The bisected head of a dolphin: The melon is just above the upper jaw. Three-dimensional models of various odontocete melons based on CT scans. The melon is a mass of adipose tissue found in the foreheads of all toothed whales. [1] [2] It focuses and modulates the animal's vocalizations and acts as a sound lens.
Pygmy killer whales also have rounded-tipped dorsal fins, as opposed to pointed tips. When compared to false killer whales, pygmy killer whales have a larger dorsal fin. Finally, pygmy killer whales have a more clearly defined line where the dark dorsal color changes to the lighter lateral color than either of the other two species. [9]