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In fish anatomy and turtle anatomy, a barbel is a slender, whiskerlike sensory organ near the mouth (sometimes called whiskers or tendrils). Fish that have barbels include the catfish , the carp , the goatfish , the hagfish , the sturgeon , the zebrafish , the black dragonfish and some species of shark such as the sawshark .
A common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). A dolphin is an aquatic mammal in the clade Odontoceti (toothed whale).Dolphins belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins), and possibly extinct Lipotidae (baiji or Chinese river dolphin).
Animals that do not whisk, but have motile whiskers, presumably also gain some advantage from the investment in musculature. Dorothy Souza, in her book Look What Whiskers Can Do [35] reports some whisker movement during prey capture (in cats, in this case): Whiskers bend forward as the cat pounces. Teeth grasp the mouse tightly around its neck.
Coralling is a method where dolphins chase fish into shallow water to catch them more easily. [63] Orcas and bottlenose dolphins have also been known to drive their prey onto a beach to feed on it, a behaviour known as beach or strand feeding. [64] [65] The shape of the snout may correlate with tooth number and thus feeding mechanisms.
The melon is structurally part of the nasal apparatus and comprises most of the mass tissue between the blowhole and the tip of the snout. The function of the melon is not completely understood, but scientists believe it is a bioacoustic component, providing a means of focusing sounds used in echolocation and creating a similarity between characteristics of its tissue and the surrounding water ...
Kipa Hemi Whiro, a kaumātua of Ngāti Kuia is reported in 1913 as being "very positive in his belief" that Pelorus Jack was "the self-same fish of ancient days", Kaikai-a-waro, a sea-god or taniwha who had guided his ancestor Matua-hautere across Cook Strait from the North Island to settle in the South Island many generations earlier. [9]
In southern right whale dolphins (Lissodelphis peronii), the white patch extends higher on the posterior flanks and head. Calves, which are born initially creamy-dark grey or brown, attain adult colouring by the age of one year. [7] The beak of northern right whale dolphins is short and well-defined, characterised by a straight mouthline.
Both species have slender bodies, small, pointed flippers and a small fluke. Conspicuously, neither species has a dorsal fin; nor do right whales and this may explain the dolphins' name. The northern right whale dolphin is the only dolphin in the Pacific with this property.