Whale skulls act like antennas, CT scans reveal

By Jeremy RehmApr. 23, 2018 , 2:30 PM

Whales can sing, buzz, and even whisper to one another, but one thing has remained unknown about these gregarious giants: how they hear. Given the size of some whales and their ocean home, studying even the basics of these mammals has proved challenging. But two researchers have now developed a way to determine how baleen whales such as humpbacks hear their low-frequency (10- to 200-hertz) chatter, and they found some bone-rattling results.

Baleen whales have a maze of ear bones that fuse to their skull, leading scientists to suppose the skull helps whales hear. Under this premise, the researchers used a computerized tomography scanner meant for rockets to scan the preserved bodies of a minke whale calf (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) and a fin whale calf (B. physalus), both of which had stranded themselves along U.S. coasts years before and died during rescue operations. 

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Fossil hunters in Santa Cruz make whale of a find

The fossil hunters of the Purisima Formation are avid collectors of the dead - they probe the beaches and sandy cliffs around Santa Cruz to find the stony bones of birds and whales and sea creatures that lived and died there millions of years ago.

To scientists, those amateur hunters provide an endlessly renewing source of material that bears witness to the ebb and flow of evolution as environments change over the millennia and life adapts to the changes and moves on into ever-new forms.

Two of those amateurs recently passed on a few of their trophies to Robert W. Boessenecker - known as Bobby to his surfing friends in Capitola - who is now a 27-year-old paleontology graduate student in New Zealand.

Evolutionary ancestors

He and two colleagues have just published a scientific report on the fossil discoveries: a primitive whale skull and two ear bones from two members of the dolphin family that swam in the sea some 5 million years ago and appear to have shared the features of modern whale species. The ancient animals might well have been the common evolutionary ancestors of their modern descendants, Boessenecker believes.

His detailed description of the primitive bones is published in the international paleontology journal Acta Paleontologica Polonica. In the report, Boessenecker creditsStanley Jarocki of Watsonville and Robin Eisenman, a one-time Aptos beachcomber, as the fossils' finders.

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Whale skull found in Moosehead Lake (Maine) (via Chad Arment)

Five Foot Long Skull Found in Lake
Caroline Connolly - August 24th 2011

Rockwood - The pace of life at Moosehead Lake just sort of bobs along, offering views that are, at the very least, consistent.

"You see fish, you know, you see old bottles from the Kineo," said Lynn Stade.

But on a recent trip, Stade and his family swam right into a mystery waiting for them on the lake's floor.

"I thought, oh my god, it looks like a prehistoric monster."

Or what used to be one.

Stretching five feet and smelling nothing like the catch of the day should, it was hauled back by Stade's family to a nearby home in Rockwood.

"To me it's either a whale that survived in the lake all these years. It's a phenomenon. I don't know what it is," said Stade.

That's why they called local newspaper owner, Busta Koppenhaver, to help them get some answers.

"Left a message that said next time you come up bring your camera. I thought we were talking about a two headed chicken, or a humongous sized bees nest, I wasn't sure."

But Koppenhaver thought it was worth of a full page spread asking readers to guess what it is.

"A lot of locals insist that it's a moose's skull. I see no resemblance of a moose there. I've seen moose skulls before. They have teeth, for one thing."

And researchers at the University of Maine agreed, telling us that based on pictures, they believe it's the skull of a Minke Whale that was most likely dumped in the lake.

"I don't see foul play," said Koppenhaver.

He would like to believe that the skull's story runs much deeper than that.

"It would be fun to think that it is a prehistoric creature that lived in the lake. It would be fun to think that it was ET."

And however shallow his theories, it's clear that this family's summer trip has created a ripple effect amidst the calm and quiet of Moosehead Lake.

http://www.wabi.tv/news/22955/five-foot-long-skull-found-in-lake