Scientific Illustration

orbiculator:

Stages described in the previous video post are depicted here in the form of an illustration.

Illustrated by Jen Christiansen (whale fall illustration) and Catherine Wilson (species inset illustrations).

Nothing ever goes to waste. Except fossils maybe, but then again they make paleontologist giddy as eff.

depictedscience:

Bernard-Germain de Lacépède: Oeuvres du Comte de Lacépède, comprenant l’histoire naturelle des quadrupèdes, des serpents, des poissons et des cétacés, Paris 1830.

(via depictedscience)

griseus:

source NOAA Fisheries Service

griseus:

Grampus griseus by Edward Drinker Cope (1876) proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia (vol 28)

big size 

rhamphotheca:

Sperm Whale (Physeter catodon)

The sperm whale, is the largest toothed predator on Earth. Males can be over 18m long, weighing up to 50,000kg.Mature female sperm whales tend to live in social groups of up to 15 mature females and their offspring, whereas mature males live alone or in smaller groups.The sperm whale is listed as vunerable to extinction by the IUCN. Commercial whaling was the biggest threat to this species.

(via: Encyclopedia Of Life)     

(images: T - Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad - INBio, Costa Rica.; BL - EOL Rapid Response Team; BR - NOAA)

rhamphotheca:

Oldest Antarctic Whale Found; Shows Fast Evolution (Nov. 2011)

Ancient jawbone suggests whales evolved more rapidly than thought

by John Roach

The oldest known whale to ply the Antarctic has been found, scientists say. A 24-inch-long (60-cm-long) jawbone was recently discovered amid a rich deposit of fossils on the Antarctic Peninsula (map).

The creature, which may have reached lengths of up to 20 ft (6 m), had a mouthful of teeth and likely feasted on giant penguins, sharks, and big bony fish, whose remains were also discovered with the jawbone.

The early whale swam polar waters during the Eocene period, some 49 million years ago. Its age suggests fully aquatic whales evolved from their mammalian ancestors more rapidly than previously thought, said researcher Thomas Mörs, paleozoologist at the Swedish Museum of Natural History.

Based on 53-million-year-old fossils of whale-like, semi-aquatic mammals, scientists had thought mammals gave rise to whales in a process that took 15 million years. The new find suggests it took just 4 million years.  What’s more, “as soon as they became fully marine animals, they dispersed all over the world, showing the great success of the whale construction,” Mörs said in an email…

(read more: National Geo)          (image: Marcelo Reguero via AFP/Getty Images)

rhamphotheca:

I CAN’T STOP POSTING ABOUT THIS!!!…

Livyatan melvillei (originally Leviathan) • The giant bite of a new raptorial sperm whale from the Miocene epoch of Peru

[Paleontology • 2010]

The modern giant sperm whale Physeter macrocephalus, one of the largest known predators, preys upon cephalopods at great depths. Lacking a functional upper dentition, it relies on suction for catching its prey; in contrast, several smaller Miocene sperm whales (Physeteroidea) have been interpreted as raptorial (versus suction) feeders, analogous to the modern killer whale Orcinus orca.

Whereas very large physeteroid teeth have been discovered in various Miocene localities, associated diagnostic cranial remains have not been found so far. Here we report the discovery of a new giant sperm whale from the Middle Miocene of Peru (approximately 12–13 million years ago), Leviathan melvillei, described on the basis of a skull with teeth and mandible. With a 3-m-long head, very large upper and lower teeth (maximum diameter and length of 12 cm and greater than 36 cm, respectively), robust jaws and a temporal fossa considerably larger than in Physeter, this stem physeteroid represents one of the largest raptorial predators and, to our knowledge, the biggest tetrapod bite ever found.

The appearance of gigantic raptorial sperm whales in the fossil record coincides with a phase of diversification and size-range increase of the baleen-bearing mysticetes in the Miocene. We propose that Leviathan fed mostly on high-energy content medium-size baleen whales. As a top predator, together with the contemporaneous giant shark Carcharocles megalodon, it probably had a profound impact on the structuring of Miocene marine communities. The development of a vast supracranial basin in Leviathan, extending on the rostrum as in Physeter, might indicate the presence of an enlarged spermaceti organ in the former that is not associated with deep diving or obligatory suction feeding…

(read more: NovaTaxa)

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reference:  Lambert, Olivier; Giovanni Bianucci, Klaas Post, Christian de Muizon, Rodolfo Salas-Gismondi, Mario Urbina, and Jelle Reumer. 2010. The giant bite of a new raptorial sperm whale from the Miocene epoch of Peru. Nature. 466 (7302): 105–108. DOI:10.1038/nature09067

ao-karasu:

Basilosaurus cetoides. Scientific illustration practice- lately, I’ve been really obsessed with primitive whales.

biomedicalephemera:

Skeleton of the Fin Whale (Baelenoptera musculus)

Fin whales are the second-longest animal in the world, and second-largest, after the blue whale. They travel significantly faster than blue whales in open ocean, but were (and are) hunted just as much, if not more, than their rorqual counterparts. There are estimated to be 38,000 alive today.

avec-des-morts:

basilosaurus, “king lizard”.