Study in Royal Society journal on possiblity of human organ regeneration
... Institute of Technology, USA Diving behaviour of whale sharks in relation to a predictable food pulse by ... and Dr JCR Smart We present diving data for four whale sharks in relation to a predictable food pulse (reef fish spawn) and an analysis of the longest cont...Deep sea buffet for bone-devouring worms
...an turn-over a large amount of organic carbon (one whale carcass may weigh up to 50 tons), approximately 2000 years faster than the usual mechanism of carbon deposition to the deep seafloor. The results of this study will aid understanding of the potential for adaptation between animals and microbes....Why a whale shark's spots could help save its skin
... and galaxies in the night sky could help save the whale shark - whose spotted skin is like a starry sky - ...stial objects could be used to identify individual whale sharks. Whale sharks' spots are analogous to bright stars in the night sky, allowing the trio of res...Seal rookeries could provide a reliable food source for endangered California condors, study finds
...06, Lewis and Clark found large condors feeding on whale carcasses near the mouth of the Columbia River in ...around that time, and the large seal rookeries and whale carcasses quickly disappeared. So the condors were once again stuck without a food source. Our isoto...Marine biology mystery solved: Function of 'unicorn' whale's 8-foot tooth discovered
...dreds of years: why does thenarwhal, or "unicorn," whale have an 8-foot-long tooth emerging from itshead, a... Arctic habitat and protected status inCanada, the whale is difficult to study. Nweeia has brought together leadersfrom the fields of marine mammal science, ...Scientists solve mystery of the 'unicorn' whale
...the helix-shaped tusk of the narwhal, or "unicorn" whale has proved to be an extraordinary sensory organ, according to a team of researchers from Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Paffenbarger Research Center of the American Dental Association Foundation (ADAF) at the National Instit...Research tracks whales by listening to sounds
...d the unique clicks, pulses and calls of different whale species. Those efforts are leading to some surpri...re has been only one confirmed sighting of a right whale in the Gulf of Alaska since 1980, so discovering them is not only surprising, it is fairly significa...Underwater listening devices yield discoveries about endangered large whales
...anuary 2006 issue of BioScience reports. Because whale calls can be detected and recognized over tens of ...ot been seen in decades. The results from acoustic whale surveys conducted to date could pave the way for more sophisticated acoustic surveys that would prov...3,317 and counting (the number of marine species in the Gulf of Maine)
...e birth in the winter. Mammals like the humpback whale are at the top of the marine food chain and depend...ecies lower in the chain. For example, a humpback whale may need to eat a ton of herring (about 5,000 fish). Each herring has fed on hundreds of zooplankto...Marine mammals are on the frontline of failing ocean health
...ed in the tissues of fish, seals, and other killer whale food. Prey from California waters have a chemical signature that reflects high use of DDT as an agricultural pesticide prior to the US ban in the 1970's. Similarly, chemical ratios that show high levels of flame retardants (PBDEs) are linked to area...Warbling whales speak a language all their own
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. ...n, although the authors do not claim that humpback whale songs meet the linguistic rigor necessary for a true language. "Humpback songs are not like human la...New antimicrobial compound adheres to skin to promote healing
...-profile animal cruelty case, and Gasper, a beluga whale at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The researche...rently using the compound to heal skin ulcers on a whale named Gasper who was rescued from a Mexico City amusement park and is now a popular resident of the ...Diverse sea 'bugs' revealed on landmark Atlantic cruise to census zooplankton
... harvested for human consumption. Several bird and whale species depend directly on zooplankton; others rely on zooplankton-eating fish higher in the food chain. Nearly 7,000 zooplankton species in 15 phyla (the major groups of animals) are described now. With taxonomic analysis of new and existing samp...Whale bubble nets, saxophone sounds, ultrasonic laser
...whales work in groups to capture herring, with one whale broadcasting sound at a herring school to drive them to the water surface. A second whale blows a "net" of bubbles to encircle the rising school. As Orest Diachok of the Johns Hopkins Univer...Global warming may have damaged coral reefs forever
...atisfaction is high with granite reefs, wrecks and whale sharks. Lead researcher Nick Graham, of Newcastle University's School of Marine Science and Technology, said: "We have shown there has been very little recovery in the reef system of the inner Seychelles islands for seven years after the 1998 coral ...Ecologists home in on how sperm whales find their prey
... locating prey in the dark ocean depths. The sperm whale is the world's largest deep-diving toothed whale, feeding mainly on squid, but until now little has been known about the timing of prey detection and capture during dives. "Due to the difficulty of observing sperm whales during their long, deep dives...How ancient whales lost their legs, got sleek and conquered the oceans
...of hind limbs vanished at the end of this stage of whale evolution, said Cohn. A gene called Hand2, which normally functions as a switch to turn on Sonic hedgehog, was shown to be inactive in the hind limb buds of dolphins. Without it, limb development grinds to a halt. "By integrating data from fossils wi...US hearing health, better telephone speech
...whales work in groups to capture herring, with one whale broadcasting sound at a herring school to drive them to the water surface. A second whale blows a "net" of bubbles to encircle the rising school. As Orest Diachok of the Johns Hopkins Univer......ered 28 new species that may depend exclusively on whale carcasses for food. Whaling, however, deprives th...on the extinction of deep-sea animals that live on whale carcasses. Their results suggest that species extinctions may have already occurred in the North At...