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The beluga's body size is between that of a dolphin and a true whale, with males growing up to 5.5 m (18 ft) long and weighing up to 1,600 kg (3,530 lb). This whale has a stocky body. Like many cetaceans, a large percentage of its weight is blubber (subcutaneous fat).
The manatee's tail is paddle-shaped, and is the clearest visible difference between manatees and dugongs; a dugong tail is fluked, similar in shape to that of a whale. The manatee is unusual among mammals in having just six cervical vertebrae , [ 12 ] a number that may be due to mutations in the homeotic genes . [ 13 ]
The beluga also rivals the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the greenland shark (Somniosus microcephalus) for the title of largest actively predatory fish. [ 10 ] [ 11 ] The largest accepted record is of a female taken in 1827 in the Volga estuary at 1,571 kg (3,463 lb) and 7.2 m (23 ft 7 in).
The dugong (/ ˈ d (j) uː ɡ ɒ ŋ /; Dugong dugon) is a marine mammal.It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees.It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest modern relative, Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas), was hunted to extinction in the 18th century.
A humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) A leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx). Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises), pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses), sirenians (manatees and dugongs), sea otters and polar bears.
A giant shark that was known as a megalodon use to terrorize the underwater world. Although the enormous sharks didn't make the evolutionary cut, researchers believe they still had a big impact on ...
The whale shark is the largest species in this order, reaching up to 20 meters long when fully mature. [53] No other species in the order even approaches this size. The next largest species is the nurse shark ( Ginglymostoma cirratum ), which can grow up to 4.3 m (14 ft) across the disk and weighing more than 350 kg (770 lb).
Just another day at the office, naked deep-sea diving with beluga whales at the Arctic Circle. Natalia Avseenko, a 36-year-old Russian scientist, decided to test the hypothesis that belugas might ...