This article presents the first series of MRI-based anatomically labeled sectioned images of the brain of the killer whale (Orcinus orca). Magnetic resonance images of the brain of an adult killer whale were acquired in the coronal and axial planes. The gross morphology of the killer whale brain is comparable in some respects to that of other odontocete brains, including the unusual spatial arr...

Fig. I. Absorption spectra of vitamin Ai (Ai), vitamin A2 (A2), subvitamin A (S), kitol (K), anhydrovitamin Ai (Ai'), anhydrovitamin A2 (AD and anhydrosubvitamin A (S'). to isolate kitol having the absorption maximum at 290 mμ.1> Furthermore, substances related to vitamin A such as anhydro vitam:ln A and subvitamin A have been confirmed in ordinary fish liver oils. Also in the whale liver oil, ...

Monitoring the whale individuals in the ocean is a current problem among conservationists. Biologists often use photos of whale caudal for this problem as it is the most discriminant pattern for distinguishing an individual whale from another, but it often requires laborious visual analysis. There was a challenge announced in the SeaCLEF of LifeCLEF campaign for automatic whale individual recog...

Two cruises were conducted in the eastern North Pacific Ocean to investigate the precision of large whale call locations as determined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory’s (PMEL) implementation of a localization and tracking routine using data from the U.S. Navy’s Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS). Attempts to confirm SOSUS-...

Whale sharks are generally associated with environmental factors that drive their movements to specific locations where food availability is high. Consequently, foraging is believed to be the main reason for the formation of whale shark aggregations. Feeding aggregations occur mainly in nearshore areas and are composed primarily of immature individuals. Conversely, aggregations of mature adults...

The histology of the lungs of aquatic mammals have been studied by a number of previous authors, FIEBIGER (1916), NEUVILLE (1928), WISLOCKI (1929), BELANGER (1940) etc. In the present paper my own histological studies on the pulmonary divisions from the bronchoile to the air spaces in several kinds of the cetacea will be mentioned. The whales treated here are three species of Odontoceti, Prodel...

BACKGROUND Herpesvirus can infect a wide range of animal species: mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians and bivalves. In marine mammals, several alpha- and gammaherpesvirus have been identified in some cetaceans and pinnipeds species. To date, however, this virus has not been detected in any member of the Balaenoptera genus. CASE PRESENTATION Herpesvirus was determined by molecular metho...

Mammals vary dramatically in lifespan, by at least two-orders of magnitude, but the molecular basis for this difference remains largely unknown. The bowhead whale Balaena mysticetus is the longest-lived mammal known, with an estimated maximal lifespan in excess of two hundred years. It is also one of the two largest animals and the most cold-adapted baleen whale species. Here, we report the fir...