Evolution of cetaceans

The article by PHYS.ORG (2014) was written about the new dolphin species of Victoria, Australia, called the Burrunan dolphin. This species was recently discover by Dr. Kate Charlton-Robb, 3 years ago, in 2011 (PHYS.ORG, 2014). Although not a lot is known about them, there is a concern surrounding the conservation of Burrunan dolphins (PHYS.ORG, 2014). The population size of the species is very small and according to Dr. Charlton-Robb, for each region there are less than 100 dolphins that can…

Introduction A splash occurs as a creature leaps from the water into the air, arcs of water droplets falling from its bottle-like snout and flippers. This creature is a bottlenose dolphin. I chose the bottlenose dolphin because it is one of the world’s smartest creatures, along with being altruistic and playful towards other dolphins, humans, and even whales. I was inspired to research more about bottlenose dolphins after seeing several dolphins in the ocean while on vacation at Maui, and I…

really any evidence that claim is true? Of course, we cannot tackle the entire tree of life at once, so instead, we’ll focus most of our attention on one small but fascinating branch of the evolutionary tree: Cetaceans. This branch includes whales and dolphins Body According to Biologists, Cetaceans have evolved from an ancient four-legged land mammal. Anatomically, whales have bones needed for a fully developed arm, hand,…

Though humans and dolphins share intrinsically complex fission-fusion social systems, the scientific studies on their social networks differ. This is because researchers have a different focus when conducting their studies. For humans, researchers are focused on clinical outcomes: lower rates of morbidity and lower rates of mortality involving cardiovascular disease. For dolphins, researchers are focused on the reproduction and survival outcomes. Margaret A. Stanton and Janet Mann, both from the…

Bottlenose Dolphin attacks on Harbour Porpoises Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) attacks have been responsible for 318 Harbour Porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) deaths between 1991 and 2010. However, almost everything we know about Bottlenose Dolphin attacks comes from the necropsies of their victims; Harbour Porpoise, as very few attacks have been observed or even documented scientifically. In the UK there are two established populations of Bottlenose Dolphins; Cardigan Bay, Wales and the…

Bottlenose Dolphins Known for their curved mouths and acrobatic flips, the bottlenose dolphin is a friendly and intelligent sea creature known to humans around the world. They can often be seen performing flips and tricks as the stars of aquarium shows, and are named after their unique shaped beak, the “bottlenose”. The bottlenose dolphin has a sleek, streamlined-shaped body to help them reach fast speeds and for jumping high. Its skin is smooth and rubbery since it doesn’t have any sweat…

of the many items contained in school curriculums includes evolution. Evolution is a highly controversial subject in science that typically starts many debates with differing views on the subject. Some are for the teaching of evolution in public schools while others do not agree with evolution and does not want it taught to their children on the grounds of religious beliefs or general disagreement of the subject. However, I believe evolution should continue to be included as a part of the…

In the year 2009, a documentary film titled, The Cove by director Louie Psihoyos, was released covering the actions of an elite team of filmmakers, and activist as they capture the events of their operation to expose the truth about the Taiji, Japan’ dolphin slaughter. This is a yearly event that takes place at the beginning of September and takes course over a course of months, where fisherman from the area corral dolphins into a small enclosed area. When this happens the fisherman allow parks,…

Common Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), are found in mostly temperate and tropical marine waters throughout the world. Temperature plays a role in the distribution of dolphins, also due to distribution of prey. In North American they typically inhabit water temperatures from 10C to 32C. In the western North Atlantic, at the northern limits bottlenose dolphin ' range, they are seasonally migratory and are more southerly distributed in the winter. They are found as far north as the Kuril…

CLASSIFICATION AND FUN FACTS ABOUT DOLPHIN 10-B SOPHIA LEE REBECCA CZEKALSKI/ VICTORIA MORGAN Dolphin’s kingdom is Animalia. Spinner dolphins are multi-cellular and heterotrophic so they are classified under Animalia. This means they rely on other organisms for food. The cells that frame these animals don’t have a cell wall and most of the cells are organized into tissues, which are then put into particular groups of organs for function. Dolphins can take part in many complex…