Marine Mammal Orders

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Marine Mammal Orders

• Pinnipedia seals, sealions, walrus
• Carnivora sea otter and polar bear
• Sirenia Manatee and sea cow (dugong)
• Cetacea - dolphine, porpose, and other whales
• Mammals have mammary glands, endotherms, 4
  chambered heart, have hair/fur, and most are
  viviparous (placental). Fur, low surface-area to
  volume ratio, and blubber to maintain heat and
  buoyancy.

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Carnivores

• Sea Otters Life in water - even giving birth.
• Groom fur to trap heat. 100,000 hairs cm2
• Keystone specie in kelp beds.
• Eat 30 their weight of urchins, shellfish, and
  crabs daily. 3x faster metabolism for heat.
• Orcas ate over 40,000 otters in 100 years.
• Polar Bear (means arctic) spend most of their
  life in water traveling from ice sheet to ice
  sheet, which are now scarce.
• Eat seals. Ferocious hunters stomp on dens.
• Arctic is the word for polar bear. Antarctica
  (south) is where polar bears do NOT live.
• Still hibernate in dens.
• Have 2 cubs per year.

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Sea Otters

• Sea otters spend the majority of their life in
  the water. They even sleep and always eat in
  the water.
• They must keep their feet out of the water to
  stay warm.
• They use rocks as tools to open shellfish.
• Sea otters must eat 25 percent of their body
  weight each day in order to stay alive.
• Otter fur has 350,000 hairs per square inch. 1
  4in. by 4 in. section is equal to 48 human heads
  of hair
• They nearly went extinct from fur traders. Now
  they are legally protected, but the Orca whale
  just discovered how tasty they are.

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• Out of 16,000 otters living in the spill zone,
  1000 died, 400 were treated, but only 200 were
  able to be returned to the wild. The oil also
  killed 37,000 birds.
• It harmed 1000 miles of shoreline and the entire
  food chain.

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Sea Otters and Oil Spills

• When a sea otter's fur was oiled, the fur can no
  longer hold the protective air layer that keeps
  them warm so they die.
• Oil spill caused reproductive failure in sea
  otters and many juveniles died from oil in their
  food.

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Pinnipeds

• Seals paddle-foot. Rest on land, swim under
  water up to an hour.
• Baby seals have white fur for warmth and camo.
• More than one den to protect. 10 days then water.
• Evolved from cat and dog.
• Seals strain krill with teeth.
• Sea lions have ears, external genitalia, and can
  move back flippers forward.
• Walrus uses tusks for defense and vibrissae
  (feelers) to find and suck up clams. Blush to
  release body heat.

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Sirenia

• Manatees There are 1000 left.
• Most killed by boats or lack of sea grass.
• Front flippers and no legs. Just a tail with
  flukes.
• Humans hunted for meat, skin, and oil in blubber.
• Harmless and curious.
• Named after mermaid songs.
• Descended from elephants.
• One calf every 3 years. Males are not mature
  until 9.

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Cetaceans Whales

• Warm blooded. 4 chambered heart. Placental
  (live) birth.
• Internal mammary gland and genitalia.
• Can dive 2 miles deep and grow
• Developed echolocation through modified ear and
  jaw bone.
• Vestigial hair and pelvic bones present in
  embryonic stages. Why have them if you dont use
  them?
• Transitional stages in fossil record.
• Convergent Evolution of analogous features
  flippers, flukes, and streamline body (different
  make up, but similar function.
• Homologous structures same make up, but work
  very differently. Same bones as our hand, but
  shaped into a flipper.

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Convergent Evolution
Homologous Structures
Analogues Structures
Vestigial Structures
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30 meters (90 feet) Largest Animal EVER!
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Feeding

• Baleen whales eat plankton, krill, and small
  schooling fish that they filter with their baleen
  (made of keratin).
• Toothed whales may eat larger fish and mammals,
  such as seals.
• Killer whales (orca) splash large waves on ice
  bergs to wash seals off into the water where the
  pack of whales are waiting to feed (on you-tube).

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Rorquals with Throat Grooves
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Echolocation

• Sperm Whale (Moby Dick) sailors used to think
  the enlarged head contained sperm.
• Now we know it is full of oil (ambergris) used
  for echolocation.
• Used in place of smell

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Echolocation

• Melon head full of oil.
• Spermatocie is the oil within the melon.
• The oil is also used for buoyancy and to absorb
  extra nitrogen
• Lower jaw bones are filled with oil to transmits
  sounds to the inner ear chamber.
• This produces an image similar to sonar
• It can also send a shock wave Big Bang to kill
  their food

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Arctic Beluga Whales
Dorsal ridge instead of fin (dorsal fins causes
heat loss and would get stuck on ice). You can
watch their bulging melon can change shapes
during echolocation Calves are born gray and
lighten with age.
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Vocalization

• Separate from echolocation
• They communicate to each other through sounds
  clicks, chirps, and touching
• Used to maintain distance
• They recognize each other by sound
• Feeding signals and alarms
• They also say hi and play with bubble rings
• Whales sing to attract mates

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Dolphin Swim
Dolphins and whales may swim up to 30 mph.
Dolphins jump out of the water to breathe when
speeding. They do tricks for fun and are
conditioned with rewards. Very playful, but can
attack with rostrum. Hunt in packs.
Cognitive Ability http//library.thinkquest.org/1
7963/genus-Tursiops.html
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HydrodynamicsDolphins swim fast!
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Cetacean Breathing

• The nose of this order of marine mammals has
  been adapted into a blow hole which is located at
  the top of the head.
• Either one or two nostrils that can clamp shut to
  prevent water from entering.
• They are conscience breathers so only half of
  their brain can shut down at a time. They
  laterally sleep with one eye open and half a
  brain a wake. Then they rotate to the other side
  for the next 8 hours.

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Blood and Oxygen Storage

• Dolphins have larger lungs than humans and can
  hold their breath much longer. They can dive for
  1 hour.
• 15 to 25 air exchange in human compared to 80 to
  90 air exchange in whales
• They store 10 to 30 x more oxygen than us.
• They have 2 x more blood per pound in whales than
  humans

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Adaptations for Diving

• Diving down 2 miles (7,300 ft)for food and
  protection for 1 h.
• Blood vessels in tongue reduces heat loss
• 90 gas exchange in one breath (20 in us)
• 3000 times more air than humans
• More red blood cells with more hemoglobin and
  myoglobin (in muscles) to store oxygen
• Heart rate drops to 12 instead of 85 beats/min.
• Blood is directed from fins to vital organs
  (brain and heart) only to maintain body heat at
  ocean depths.

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Avoiding the Bends

• Nitrogen dissolves into the blood under high
  pressure, but upon surfacing it sends deadly
  bubbles to the brain and joints (painful) like
  carbonation in a 2 liter.
• Divers must go into a decompression chamber if
  they are lucky!
• Whales flexible lungs collapse under the waters
  pressure squeezing out all of the air so that
  nitrogen cannot get into the blood stream and
  forces oxygen into central body cavities.

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Blubber

• 20 inches of blubber in Bay Whale
• Blubber retains body heat and prevents melting
  ice because it keeps the heat within the body
  (insulates). Your body can loose heat twice as
  fast in water.
• Blubber also helps buoyancy.
• Whales stay warm by redirecting blood away from
  the thin flippers and keep it near the core of
  the body to stay warm.

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Behavior

• Whales and dolphins will protect by attacking
  with rostrum. They even spy.
• They will surround, support/carry, and stay with
  their dead and dying until they rot.
• Hierarchy among pod (family) members.
• Monogamous partners. If one partner dies the
  other may stop eating.
• Dolphins are one of the only animals to find
  pleasure in intercourse. They have been to
  reported to have been aroused by humans and rape
  sharks.

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Breaching

• Whale species can be identified by the size and
  shape of their blow spout
• They breach to look for landmarks and danger
• warning signal
• Find fish
• fun and itch

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Migration

• Gray Whales stay in the feeding grounds for about
  four months moving south in late September and
  early October (Watson 1981). 
• The second habitat is the breeding grounds off
  Baja California. 
• There, Grays vacation in the 71-degree waters
  where they  give birth and keep the calves warm
  for enhanced survival.

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Reproduction

• Bachelor and harem groups.
• Penis can exit genital slit 9 ft.
• A second props the couple together.
• Delayed Implantation of the zygote for up to 4
  months until female gets to the nesting ground.
• 12 month gestation - calf born where conceived. 
• Females give birth alone while guys hit on the
  next ladies
• Calves are nursed for 8 months and then migrate
• Calves are weaned when they reach the Arctic

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Raising the Young Whales at Sheds

• Baby beluga whales are gray because they live in
  estuaries not within the white ice. This skin
  will slough off to white by the time it will
  migrate north to the ice.
• At Sheds scientists were studying the biological
  processes of the baby whale, such as, when they
  go potty, breathing rate, growth, and
  socialization. She has gained 200 lbs. in 2.5
  months. They compare these statistics with past
  success of captive bred whales. Dominance within
  the pack and submissive behaviors (such as
  sharing food with others) are dangerous.
  Dominance is displayed by jaw popping and
  charging.
• Their dorsal fin has been modified into a ridge
  so they can swim closer to the surface (beneath
  the ice) to obtain oxygen and to break up ice
  sheets.
• They act like canaries and can mimic sounds. At
  Shedds, one whale mimicked the sound of the
  broken washing machine.

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Psychology

• The cerebrum makes up a large proportion of brain
  used for sensory interpretation, thinking, and
  memory.
• Conditioned learning practiced behavior is
  trained or reinforced with reward.
• Recognize sounds, symbols, sign language
• Complex messages to communicate in pod, hunt in
  packs, and adlib responses to trainers
• Discover and use tools in nature (protection)
• Learn by observation-mimic other animaland human
  behavior with sound effects!
• Perform cognitive tests. Identifying self in
  mirror by picking up an object.
• Recognize each other by sound
• They learn more from peers than parents

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Beaching

• Unknown reason
• They refuse to move
• Efforts to put them back in the water usually
  fail because the whale re-beaches
• They think it is a problem with their magnetic
  compass
• On land their weight crushes their internal
  organs

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Whale hunting

• One whale is worth 100,000.
• Whale oil Before petroleum was discovered, whale
  oil was the primary fuel for lamps. It could also
  be used to make candles. Whale may be used in
  cosmetics,
• Whale vomit (ambergris) the size of a base ball
  is worth 18,000 dollars because it is used in
  perfumes.
• Before we had plastic, the baleen was used to
  make corset stays, combs, house rafters, and even
  buggy whips.
• In the old days the Eskimos used to eat and use
  every part of the whale.
• The human being has killed 90-95 of many whale
  families. Others are already extinct.

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Harpooning over 100,000 Whales in 2005!
International moratorium banned commercial
whaling over 20 years ago.  The Japanese are
exploiting a loophole (whaling for scientific
research). Greenpeace was attacked!
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Dolphin Safe Tuna - not so safe!

• Contaminants (pesticides, metals, plastics, etc.)
  accumulate in the tissue of dolphins.
• Injuries or deaths due to boats.
• Fishing nets especially TUNA even most Dolphin
  Safe tuna now.

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Dolphin Attacks in Japan

• Thousands of dolphins are slaughtered annually in
  Japan. Females are taken for display and the
  males are killed for a 10,000 reward (each).
  The Japanese claim they are depleting their fish.
• They feed the dolphin meat to their school
  children. It contains high levels of mercury.
• Celebrities tried to stop them. They almost got
  thrown in jail for a VERY long time.

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Whales
Blue whale
Right whale
Sperm whale
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• http//www.scienceandsociety.emory.edu/scienceinyo
  urlife/cetaceans.htm
• http//www.spawar.navy.mil/sandiego/technology/mam
  mals/animals.html
• http//www.acsonline.org/factpack/whlparts.html
• http//crd.dnr.state.ga.us/content/displaycontent.
  asp?txtDocument365
• http//www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/turtles/leathe
  rback.htm
• http//www.biologycorner.com/bio3/notes-chap16-evi
  dence.html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin
• http//bss.sfsu.edu/holzman/courses/Fall99Projects
  /greywhale.htm