Baleen whale

Baleen Whale

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Baleen whale

The baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form the Mysticeti, one of two suborders of the Cetacea

Cetacea

The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general....
(whales, dolphins, and porpoises). Baleen whales are characterized by having baleen

Baleen

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The baleen whales, also called whalebone whales or great whales, form the Mysticeti, one of two suborders of the Cetacea

Cetacea

Baleen

Baleen or whalebone is the means by which baleen whales feed. These whales do not have teeth, but instead have rows of baleen plates in the upper jaw – flat, flexible plates with frayed edges, arranged in two Parallel rows, looking like combs of thick hair....
plates for filtering food from water, rather than having teeth. This distinguishes them from the other suborder of cetaceans, the toothed whales or Odontoceti. Living Mysticeti species have teeth only during the embryo

Embryo

An embryo is a multicellular organism ploidy eukaryote in its earliest stage of development, from the time of first cell division until birth, Egg , or germination....
nal phase. Fossil Mysticeti had teeth before baleen evolved.

The suborder contains four families

Family (biology)

In biological classification, family is a taxonomic rank. Exact details of formal nomenclature depend on the Nomenclature Codes which applies....
and fourteen species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring....
. A list of species can be found below and at the Cetacea

Cetacea

The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general....
article. The scientific name derives from the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
word mystidos, which means "unknowable".

Anatomy

Ecology and life history

Behavioral ecology

Breaching

In spite of their enormous size, baleen whales are able to leap completely out of the water. They can grow to 80 tons and 100 feet in length. Particularly known for its acrobatics is the Humpback Whale

Humpback Whale

The humpback whale is a Baleen whale whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 metres and weigh approximately 36,000 kilograms ....
, but other baleen whales also break through the water surface with their body or beat it loudly with their fin

Fin

A fin is a surface used to produce lift and thrust or to steer while traveling in water, air, or other fluid media. The first use of the word was for Fish anatomy#Fins of fish, but has been extended to include other animal limbs and man-made devices....
s. Some believe that the male baleen whales try to show off to the females, to increase their mating success. Scientists speculate that baleen whales and other cetaceans may engage in breaching to dislodge parasites, or scratch irritated skin. Breaching, and other behaviors like lobtailing, are also used to stun or kill nearby fish or krill.

Importance to humans

From the 11th to the late 20th centuries, baleen whales were hunted commercially for their oil

Oil

An oil is a chemical substance that is in a viscosity liquid state at room temperature or slightly warmer, and is both hydrophobic and lipophilic ....
and baleen. Their oil can be made into margarine

Margarine

Margarine , as a generic term, can indicate any of a wide range of butter substitutes. In many parts of the world, margarine has become the best-selling table spread, although butter and olive oil also command large market shares....
and cooking oils. Baleen was used to stiffen corset

Corset

A corset is a garment worn to mold and shape the torso into a desired shape for aesthetic or medical purposes . Both men and women are known to wear corsets, though women are more common wearers....
s, as parasol ribs, and to crease paper.

Evolutionary history

Early baleen whales first appeared as far back as Early Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
, or perhaps the latest Eocene

Eocene

The Eocene Geologic time scale is a major division of the geologic timescale and the second epoch of the Palaeogene period in the Cenozoic era....
(39-29 million years ago; E.g. Llanocetus). Early baleen whales possessed teeth inherited from their ancestors, as opposed to baleen, in modern species. The Oligocene

Oligocene

The Oligocene is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Geologic Timescale and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present....
species Aetiocetus cotylalveus is considered the evolutionary link between toothed and baleen whales. It was discovered by renowned fossil collector Douglas Emlong

Douglas Emlong

Douglas Ralph Emlong was an amateur fossil collector from the Oregon Coast in the northwestern United States. His collections contributed to the discovery and description of numerous extinct marine mammal species, many of which are ancestral to extant taxon groups....
in 1964 near Seal Rock State Recreation Site

Seal Rock State Recreation Site

Seal Rock State Recreation Site is a state park in the U.S. state of Oregon, administered by the Oregon State Parks and Recreation Department....
, Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The area was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before the arrival of traders, explorers and settlers....
in a sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-size mineral or rock Particle size . Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust ....
formation. In the early 1990s, the species Janjucetus hunderi was discovered in Victoria

Victoria (Australia)

File:Map Victoria Aboriginal tribes .jpgVictoria is a States and territories of Australia located in the southeastern corner of Australia. It is the smallest mainland state in area but the most Population density and urbanised....
, Australia

Australia

Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
by a surfer and was described in 2006 by E. M. G. Fitzgerald. Janjucetus
Janjucetus

Janjucetus is an extinct genus of whale, and a basal form of the Mysticeti, a clade which includes the extant baleen whales. The only known species, Janjucetus hunderi, lived during the late Oligocene, about 25 million years ago in coastal seas off southeast Australia....
was a baleen whale with sharp teeth that hunted fish

Fish

A fish is any marine biology vertebrate animal that is typically ectothermic , covered with scale , and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins....
and squid

Squid

Squid are marine cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, Symmetry #Bilateral_symmetry, a mantle , and cephalopod arms....
as well as larger prey, potentially including shark

Shark

Sharks are a type of fish with a full Cartilage skeleton and a highly Streamlines, streaklines and pathlinesd body. They respire with the use of five to seven gill slits....
s and dolphin

Dolphin

File:Bottlenose_Dolphin_KSC04pd0178.jpgDolphins are marine mammals that are closely related to whales and porpoises. There are almost forty species of dolphin in seventeen genus....
-like cetaceans. These fossils hint that early baleen whales were predatory and eventually evolved into the gentler, toothless whales known today. A recent study identified palatal foramina (bony impressions of blood vessels that 'feed' the baleen racks) in the palate of a toothed mysticete, Aetiocetus weltoni. The scientists involved indicated that this discovery implies that this whale possessed both teeth and baleen, and serves as an intermediate adaptive role between primitive toothed mysticetes and more advanced toothless mysticetes. The first baleen-bearing, toothless baleen whales (such as Eomysticetus, and Micromysticetus)appeared in the late Oligocene . Early baleen whales probably could not echolocate; no anatomical evidence preserved in the skulls and ear regions of any fossil baleen whales show any of the adaptations associated with echolocation as in 'toothed whales' (Odontoceti) .

Taxonomic classification

ORDER CETACEA
Cetacea

The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Cetus is Latin and is used in biological names to mean "whale"; its original meaning, "large sea animal", was more general....