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Solution of Assignment

ANIMAL DIVERISTY II

Prepared by
KOMAL
SAMINA
SANA
Qura-tul-Ain

GC –ID
1002
1020
1032
1039 1
Semester
Fall 2010 4th
Degree /Category
BS (Hons)
Submitted to
MADAM TAHIRA
The Origin of Whales and the Power of Independent
Evidence

What is a whale?
A whale is first and foremost, a mammal - a warm-blooded vertebrate that uses its high
metabolism to generate heat and regulate its internal temperature. But a whale is a very
specialized mammal.

Thinking about the ancestry of the whale:


In 1693, John Ray recorded his realization that whales are mammals based on the
similarity of whales to terrestrial mammals Darwin (1859) suggested that whales arose
from bears, sketching a scenario in which selective pressures might cause bears to evolve
into whales; embarrassed by criticism, he remove his hypothetical swimming bears from
later editions of the Origin.

The evidence:
The evidence that whales descended from terrestrial mammals is here
divided into nine independent parts: paleontological, morphological, molecular
biological, vestigial, embryological, geochemical, paleoenvironmental,
paleobiogeographical, and chronological.

1. Paleontological evidence:
The paleontological evidence comes from studying the fossil sequence from terrestrial
mammals through more and more whale-like forms until the appearance of modern
whales

2. Morphological evidence:
The examination of the morphological characteristics shared by the fossil whales and
living ungulates makes their common ancestry even clearer. For example, the anatomy
of the foot of Basilosaurus allies whales with artiodactyls (Gingerich and others 1990).
The axis of foot symmetry in these fossil whales falls between the 3rd and 4th digits.
This arrangement is called paraxonic and is characteristic of the artiodactyls, whales, and
condylarths, and is rarely found in other groups.

3. Molecular biological evidence :

The hypothesis that whales are descended from terrestrial mammals predicts that living
whales and closely related living terrestrial mammals should show similarities in their
molecular biology roughly in proportion to the recency of their common ancestor. That
is, whales should be more similar in their molecular biology to groups of animals with
which they share a more recent common ancestor than to other animals that exhibit
convergent similarities in morphology, ecology, or behavior.

4. Vestigial evidence:
The vestigial features of whales tell us two things. They tell us that whales, like so many
other organisms, have features that make no sense from a design perspective - they have
no current function, they require energy to produce and maintain, and they may be
deleterious to the organism. They also tell us that whales carry a piece of their
evolutionary past with them, highlighting a history of a terrestrial ancestry.

Modern whales often retain rod-like vestiges of pelvic bones, femora, and tibiae, all
embedded within the musculature of their body walls.
5. Embryological evidence:
Like the vestigial features, the embryological features also tells us two things. First, the
whale embryo develops a number of features that it later abandons before it attains its
final form.

Second, the embryology of the whale, examined in detail, also provides evidence for its
terrestrial ancestry. As embryos no less than as adult animals, whales are junkyards, as it
were, of old, discarded features that are of no further use to them. Many whales, while
still in the womb, begin to develop body hair. Yet no modern whales retain any body hair
after birth, except for some snout hairs and hairs around their blowholes used as sensory
bristles in a few species.
WHALE CLASSIFICATION

There are two types of whales alive today: toothed whales, Odontoceti, and baleen
whales, Mysticeti. Toothed whales have teeth, are predators that eat fish, squid, and
marine mammals.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata (vertebrates)
Class: Mammalia (mammals)
Order: Cetacea

Physical characters:
Those are not shared with other mammals
Whales have streamlined bodies that are thick and rounded, unlike the generally slim,
elongated bodies of fishes. A whale's tail has horizontal flukes, which are its sole means
of propulsion through the water. The dorsal fin is stiffened by connective tissue, but is
fleshy and entirely without supporting bones. The flippers that allow the whale to steer
are composed of flattened and shortened arm bones, flat, disk-like wrist bones, and
multiple elongated fingers. The elbow joint is virtually immobile, making the flipper
rigid. In the shoulder girdle, the shoulder blade is flattened, and there is no clavicle. A
few species of whales still possess a vestigial pelvis, and some have greatly reduced and
nonfunctional hindlimbs. Unlike the rest of the mammals, whales have no tear glands, no
skin glands, and no olfactory sense. Their hearing is acute but the ear has no external
opening. Hearing occurs via vibrations transmitted to a heavy, shell-like bone formed by

fusion of skull bones.


Characteristics and Behavior

Anatomy
Like all mammals, whales breathe air, are warm-blooded, nurse their young with milk
from mammary glands, and have body hair]Beneath the skin lies a layer of fat called
blubber, which stores energy and insulates the body. Whales have a spinal column, a
vestigial pelvic bone, and a four-chambered heart. The neck vertebrae are typically fused,
trading flexibility for stability during swimming

Appendages

The body shape is fusiform and the modified forelimbs, or fins, are paddle-shaped. The
end of the tail is composed of two flukes, which propel the animal by vertical movement,

as opposed to the horizontal movement of a fish tail.


Teeth

Toothed whales, such as the sperm whale, possess teeth with cementum cells overlying
dentine cells. Unlike human teeth, which are composed mostly of enamel on the portion

of the tooth outside of the gum, whale teeth have cementum outside the gum.

Ears

The whale ear has specific adaptations to the marine environment. In humans, the middle
ear works as an impedance matcher between the outside air’s low impedance and the
cochlear fluid’s high impedance. In aquatic mammals such as whales, however, there is
no great difference between the outer and inner environments. Instead of sound passing
through the outer ear to the middle ear, whales receive sound through the throat, from
which it passes through a low-impedance fat-filled cavity to the inner ear.

SKIN AND BLUBBER

Cetacean skin is very thin and closely attached to the thick layers of blubber; together,
they encase the entire body. The blubber is not firmly attached to the muscle layers which
lie underneath, however, so the two masses can move over one another a great deal. The
smooth-appearing skin is misleading - underneath lies a system of dermal ridges. The
function of these ridges is to reduce drag by ensuring laminar flow.

In order for thermoregulation to occur between the surrounding water and the whale's
warm inner core, the blubber lay must present a great enough amount of thermal
resistance. The blubber of the whale not only serves to maintain its core temperature, but
also provides enough buoyancy to offset the negative buoyancy of the whale's muscle and
skeleton

MUSCULATURE
The muscles that provide the tail movements are arranged into two masses. The powerful
up-stroke is provided by the epaxial mass, which is located on the upper side of the
backbone. The down-stroke is powered by the hypaxial mass (known by whalers as the
"back muscle" and the "under fillet," respectfully). The epaxial muscle mass must be
much larger than the hypaxial mass because it is responsible for propelling the whale
forward. Yet, the muscles of the belly wall are also connected to the tail, and the
combined weight of the belly mass muscles and the hypaxial mass are close to the weight
of the epaxial muscle mass.

RESPIRATION

The majority of marine animal residents obtain oxygen directly from the water
surrounding them, but all marine mammals must reach the surface to recharge with
oxygen. A number of marine mammals, such as Pinnepeds (seals and walruses) and
Sirens (manatees) have nostrils on the front of their faces, similar to land animals. The
Cetacean's nostril or blowhole, however, has migrated to the top of the head over
evolutionary time. The arrangement of the breathing mechanism allows the whale to
remain almost completely submerged, by using an arc swimming pattern to grab a quick
breath of air, and descend back down without having to lift the entire head from the
water.

CIRCULATION

Respiration and circulation interact extensively, as we all know, but many points related
to blood flow and heat exchange are worth mentioning. First of all, whales undergo what
is termed the mammalian dive reflex, which causes the heartbeat to slow, peripheral
arteries to constrict, and shunting of oxygenated blood to vital organs. During a whale's
dive, the metabolic rate drops, causing a reduction in heart rate, or bradycardia. A bradycardia
state in an animal allows the animal to restrict movement of blood to only regions of the heart,
brain, and lungs. This redistribution of arterial blood and vasoconstriction keeps blood away from
sensitive tissues, which require less oxygen supply in cold water.
SPERMACETI ORGAN

The spermaceti organ is unique to the sperm whale and may contribute to its ability to submerge
and remain at great depths. This large organ is positioned in the whale's snout, surrounded by
various nasal passages, and is composed of oil-filled
connective tissue and a complex mass of muscle. In a
large male sperm whale this organ may hold about
four tons of spermaceti oil. The temperature of the
water and the spermaceti oil is 33 degrees Celsius
when the sperm whale rests at the surface of the
water..

There are two ways by which the temperature of the


spermaceti oil is altered: the circulation of blood and
the whale's nasal passages. When the sperm whale is
ready to return to the ocean's surface, the amount of blood supplied to the spermaceti organ is
increased so that it is warmed by the blood heat.

Life Cycle of the Whale:

A whale baby is called a calf, the mother is a cow and the father is a bull. Whales usually
have one baby at a time. The whale calf is born under water with its eyes open and ready
to swim. The calf must go to the surface as soon as it is born in order to breathe. The
mother helps the baby to the surface to take its first breath of air.A whale calf grows very
fast. Mother whale has nipples hidden on the grooves on her belly. When the calf is
hungry, it bumps its mother. She squirts milk into the baby's mouth. The baby whale can
drink many gallons of milk in a short time. A blue whale calf gains over 4 kilograms/8
lbs. each hour until it is several months old. The whale calf will stay with its mother until
it is able to find its own food.

Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, or ovivipary, is a mode of reproduction in animals in


which embryos develop inside eggs that are retained within the mother's body until they
are ready to hatch. Ovoviviparous animals are similar to viviparous species in that there
is internal fertilization and the young are born live, but differ in that there is no placental
connection and the unborn young are nourished by egg yolk. However, the mother's body
does provide gas exchange (respiration).

Ovoviviparity is employed by many aquatic life forms such as fish and some sharks,
reptiles, and invertebrates. The young of ovoviviparous amphibians are sometimes born
as larvae, and undergo metamorphosis outside the body of the mother.
Different Types of Whales

The word whale, brings to my mind the images of 'Moby Dick', the great
white gigantic, killer whale, prowling the southern seawaters. It also brings to mind, 'Willy', the
nice, adorable, huge Orca whale, of 'Free Willy'. Whales are elusive and difficult to see,
and that's what makes them most fascinating.
Whales are found in all the oceans of the world. Whales are the largest predator known;
they eat nearly 3 to 4 percent of their body weight. While every aquatic life is a prey, they
are known to eat polar bears, reptiles and even a moose. They hunt as a team in pods for
food. Resident pods eat a wide variety of fishes and rarely seek out marine mammals,
while transient pods do exactly the opposite.
Whales are mammals and not a fish, classified under Cetaceans; split in two groups
depending on whether they have teeth or not viz.
Blue Whale
It is the largest as well as the loudest animal to live on earth. Adult female blue
whales are larger than adult males in size. They can grow up to 105 feet long weighing up
to 200 tons. Despite their gigantic size, they are shy and placid. They are generally found
to be swimming in small groups or pairs. The summers are spent in polar waters and
migrate towards the Equator during winters. Their diet mainly composes of nearly 4 tons
of krill, tiny shrimp like animals, in a day. They look true blue underwater, but on the
surface their coloring is more a mottled blue-grey.
Orca Whales

One of the most powerful predators, also commonly known as 'killer whales' they
grow to be anywhere between 82 to 105 feet and can weigh up to 200 tons. Their average
lifespan in the wild is 80 to 90 years. Most of the times, they hunt together in pods of 40.
They often frequent coastal waters, but can also be found in regions close to the Equator.
They prey on marine mammals as well fish. They can even grab seals and polar bears
right off the ice, using their four inches long teeth. They use a variety of sounds to
communicate and each pod is known to have its own typical sound. They have distinctive
black-and-white coloring and perform in many aquarium shows.
Beluga Whales
They are also called as white whales; though they are born gray or brown, they turn
white upon reaching sexual maturity. Their color makes them easily distinguishable
among other whales. Their migration depends on the environmental conditions. They
range from 13 to 20 feet in length and weigh around 2200 pounds. They are social
mammals, living and hunting together in small groups. They mostly hunt for schooling
fishes, which are found in abundance in the coastal area. They have two unusual
characteristics; first they never chew their food; they swallow it whole and second, have
flexible necks that enable them to turn its head in all directions

Gray Whales

They are often referred as great migrates, they can swim 12,430 miles round-trip from the
Alaskan waters to the Mexican coast. They are the most primitive of all whales, mottled
gray and covered with abundant abrasions, scars and clusters of parasitic barnacles on
their heads and backs. They are 40 to 50 feet in length and can weigh up to 40 tons. They
are omnivore in nature and generally feed on amphipod crustaceans.
REFERENCES:

1 http://www.google.com.pk
2 http://www.wikipedia.com.pk

3 http://www.answer.com.pk

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