Skull of the adult female and the fetus (colored baby blue)

Even though this ancestral whale has many adaptations, such seal-like bodies and a very powerful swimming tail, maybe even with flukes, and is well on the way to becoming a modern whale, they were still heavy boned and thus not for the open ocean. With the head first birthing position they would have returned to the shore to rest, mate, and give birth. But, like the modern sea lions and their relatives, the maiacetus body was no longer well adapted to life on land. As Ed put it, rather depressingly considering my talents and the economy, maiacetus innus was a jack-of-all-trades and master of none, fully adapted to neither environment.

Artist’s conception of a male Maiacetus innus as it would have appeared in life, with skeleton reconstruction overlaid.
Credit: John Klausmeyer and Bonnie Miljour University of Michigan Museums of Natural History

Read more about this awesome find at: Not Exactly Rocket Science, The Loom, Laelaps and A Blog Around The Clock. This is such a wonderful discovery that each of the aforementioned blogs highlights a slightly different aspect of the discovery.

Here is a National Geographic Channel short video about the Rodhocetus balochistanensis, another protocetecean possibly a contemporary of maiacetus, discovered by the same team.

Of course along with ancient whales I have the opportunity to present another of my father’s images from Antarctica:

A pair of humpback whales feeding on krill in the Antarctic. I love the throat pleats visible in the whale that is feeding on it’s side.

Come a long way from maiacetus innus haven’t they? Amazing animals, even more so when you consider their evolutionary journey.

The humpback feeding picture above was taken where the northern most of the camera icons in this new Google Earth 5.0 (complete with ocean data!) screen shot. The other two camera icons are from the pictures in the previous post.

A minke whale mother and calf being dragged aboard a Japanese factory whaling ship. Photo AFP

Increasing pressure from Greenpeace and the Sea Shepherd disrupted this years hunt for three weeks, but the biggest blow to the whaling may come from ex-Midnight Oil lead man Peter Garrett. Now the Australian Minister of the Environment, Peter Garrett released the above image taken by an Australian Customs official. The customs officials were tailing and documenting the hunt which Australia considers illegal. The Japanese government first claimed the photo of a mother and calf being hauled into a factory whaling ship were fake, but now claim that both whales were adult females, and that Australia is engaged in “dangerous emotional propaganda” agaist its “scientific” whaling efforts.

So how scientific is the whaling effort?

Well, two years ago that question was examined by an informal panel of Australian scientists on the ABC show Catalyst. At that time the 18 year old scientific whaling program had taken 6,800 whales. The panel found that of the 55 peer reviewed papers published by the Japanese government sponsored whaling program only 14 were relevant to study of cetaceans or developing and managing a whaling industry. Only 4 of those 14 would have required lethal sampling methods to actually obtain the information required. So the final score, by their count, was 1700 whales killed for each paper.

While I’m reluctant to condone the aggressive actions of Sea Shepherd, on this issue I find myself wondering if it is not warranted since the Japanese fleet is violating the spirit of international law in waters where no individual nation has the authority to intercede, yet every nation has a vested interest.

In related news Terri Irwin, who gave permission to the Sea Shepherd to rechristen their flagship in honor of Steve, has set up an agreement with Oregon State University to launch a southern ocean whale research program to prove to the Japanese you don’t need lethal whaling to conduct significant whale research.

While their future is still up in the air, the whale’s past has gotten a little clearer…

(Edit 9pm) It seems the past is even clearer with a paper posted today in Systemic Biology analyzing genetic and morphological evidence to track the evolution of baleen whales.

Hello Inuk!
Originally uploaded by eclectic echoes.

Meet Inuk, upclose and personal.
Inuk is the Mystic Aquarium’s male Beluga whale. He is an amazing creature who shows a great deal of curiosity and intelligence. When the crowds are thin at the Aquarium and there are only a few people in front of the glass he will sometimes stay and watch those people closely. Especially children who are more calm.

Some people ask if whales have ears at the aquarium…here you can see the small opening behind the eye — that’s Inuk’s ear.

Status: Vulnerable, growing risk; mostly from pollution of native waters but also hunting.