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Humpback whale breach sequence. A breach or a lunge is a leap out of the water, also known as cresting. The distinction between the two is fairly arbitrary: cetacean researcher Hal Whitehead defines a breach as any leap in which at least 40% of the animal's body clears the water, and a lunge as a leap with less than 40% clearance. [2]
The sperm whale or cachalot [a] (Physeter macrocephalus) is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator.It is the only living member of the genus Physeter and one of three extant species in the sperm whale family, along with the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale of the genus Kogia.
Historically, whaling took a heavy toll on sperm whale populations. Prior to the early 18th century, sperm whales were hunted in Japan and Indonesia. Legend has it that sometime in the early 18th century, supposed to be not far from 1712, Captain Christopher Hussey, while cruising for right whales near shore, was blown offshore by a northerly wind, where he encountered a school of sperm whales ...
Orcas are versatile predators with many populations actively hunting down whales such as the Grey Whale....the Sperm Whale, at 18 metres long, is the largest toothed animal to have ever lived....in spite of their enormous mass, baleen whales are capable of leaping completely out of the water, particularly the Humpback Whale
Baleen whales have two blowholes positioned in a V-shape, while toothed whales have only one blowhole. [6] The blowhole of a sperm whale , a toothed whale, is located left of centre in the frontal area of the snout, and is actually its left nostril, while the right nostril lacks an opening to the surface and its nasal passage is otherwise well ...
A researcher fires a biopsy dart at an orca.The dart will remove a small piece of the whale's skin and bounce harmlessly off the animal. Cetology (from Greek κῆτος, kētos, "whale"; and -λογία, -logia) or whalelore (also known as whaleology) is the branch of marine mammal science that studies the approximately eighty species of whales, dolphins, and porpoises in the scientific ...
Sperm whale mother with calf. They are members of the Odontoceti, the suborder containing all the toothed whales and dolphins. Suggestions that the sperm whales might be a sister group to the baleen whales were refuted by molecular and morphological data, confirming the monophyly of Odontoceti including sperm whales. [9]
It was a member of a group of macroraptorial sperm whales (or "raptorial sperm whales") and was probably an apex predator, preying on whales, seals and so forth. Characteristically of raptorial sperm whales, Livyatan had functional, enamel -coated teeth on the upper and lower jaws, as well as several features suitable for hunting large prey.