158-427: The fin whale ( Balaenoptera physalus ), also known as the finback whale or common rorqual , is a species of baleen whale and the second-longest cetacean after the blue whale . The biggest individual reportedly measured 26 m (85 ft) in length, with a maximum recorded weight of 77 to 81 tonnes. The fin whale's body is long, slender and brownish-gray in color, with
316-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
474-479: A V-shaped blow. They are surrounded by a fleshy ridge that keeps water away while the whale breathes. The septum that separates the blowholes has two plugs attached to it, making the blowholes water-tight while the whale dives. Like other mammals, the skin of baleen whales has an epidermis , a dermis , a hypodermis , and connective tissue . The epidermis, the pigmented layer, is 5 millimeters (0.2 in) thick, along with connective tissue. The epidermis itself
632-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
790-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
948-437: A fiber-reinforced structure made of intermediate filaments (proteins). The degree of calcification varies between species, with the sei whale having 14.5% hydroxyapatite , a mineral that coats teeth and bones, whereas minke whales have 1–4% hydroxyapatite. In most mammals, keratin structures, such as wool , air-dry, but aquatic whales rely on calcium salts to form on the plates to stiffen them. Baleen plates are attached to
1106-580: A fin whale off western Greenland . In January 1984, seven were seen from the air circling, holding the flippers, and ramming a fin whale in the Gulf of California, but the observation ended at nightfall. The fin whale is a filter-feeder , feeding on small schooling fish, squid and crustaceans including copepods and krill . In the North Pacific, they feed on krill in the genera Euphausia , Thysanoessa , and Nyctiphanes , large copepods in
1264-407: A length of 1.3 m (4 ft 3 in); the testes usually weigh 1–3 kg (2.2–6.6 lb) in mature individuals. The oral cavity of the fin whale has a very stretchy or extensible nerve system which aids them in feeding. Mating takes place during the winter months, in temperate, low-latitude waters, and the gestation period lasts between 11 and 12 months. At 6 or 7 months of age, when it
1422-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
1580-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
1738-468: A lunge-feeding behavior. Lunge-feeding is where a whale rams a bait ball (a swarm of small fish ) at high speed. Rorquals generally have streamlined physiques to reduce drag in the water while doing this. Balaenids rely on their huge heads, as opposed to the rorquals' throat pleats, to feed effectively. This feeding behavior allows them to grow very big and bulky, without the necessity for a streamlined body. They have callosities , unlike other whales, with
SECTION 10
#17327879035391896-547: A major portion of the diet in 1965 (35.7%). Miscellaneous fish, squid, and octopus played only a very minor part of the diet in two of the five years (3.6 to 4.8%). Fin whales caught off California between 1959 and 1970 fed on the pelagic euphausiid Euphausia pacifica (86% of sampled individuals), the more neritic euphausiid Thysanoessa spinifera (9%), and the northern anchovy ( Engraulis mordax ) (7%); only trace amounts (<0.5% each) were found of Pacific saury ( C. saira ) and juvenile rockfish ( Sebastes jordani ). In
2054-459: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
2212-546: A number of infrasonic vocalizations , notably the songs of the humpback whale . The meat, blubber, baleen, and oil of baleen whales have traditionally been used by the indigenous peoples of the Arctic . Once relentlessly hunted by commercial industries for these products, cetaceans are now protected by international law. These protections have allowed their numbers to recover. However, the North Atlantic right whale
2370-484: A paler underside to appear less conspicuous from below ( countershading ). At least two recognized subspecies exist, one in the North Atlantic and one across the Southern Hemisphere . It is found in all the major oceans, from polar to tropical waters, though it is absent only from waters close to the pack ice at the poles and relatively small areas of water away from
2528-444: A relatively small brain compared to their body mass . Like other mammals, their brain has a large, folded cerebrum , the part of the brain responsible for memory and processing sensory information. Their cerebrum only makes up about 68% of their brain's weight, as opposed to human's 83%. The cerebellum , the part of the brain responsible for balance and coordination, makes up 18% of their brain's weight, compared to 10% in humans, which
2686-484: A roughly 15 m (49 ft) specimen found near Buenos Aires about 30 years earlier as Balaenoptera patachonicus . In 1903, Romanian scientist Emil Racoviță placed all these designations into Balaenoptera physalus . The word physalus comes from the Greek word physa , meaning "blows," referring to the prominent blow of the species. Fin whales are rorquals , members of the family Balaenopteridae , which includes
2844-456: A sampling of whale meat in the Japanese market found evidence of blue/fin hybrids. Similarly, a whale caught by whalers off the coast of Iceland in 2018 was found to be a hybrid descended from a female blue whale and a male fin whale. A 2024 genome analysis of North Atlantic blue whales found that approximately 3.5% of their genome was derived from hybridization with fin whales. The gene flow
3002-485: A sensory organ located in the middle of the jaw to regulate these functions. Baleen whales have two flippers on the front, near the head. Like all mammals, baleen whales breathe air and must surface periodically to do so. Their nostrils, or blowholes , are situated at the top of the cranium . Baleen whales have two blowholes, as opposed to toothed whales which have one. These paired blowholes are longitudinal slits that converge anteriorly and widen posteriorly, which causes
3160-607: A small proportion of (mainly juvenile) blue whiting ( Micromesistius poutassou ) were also found. Of the krill sampled between 1979 and 1989, the vast majority (over 99%) was northern krill ( Meganyctiphanes norvegica ); only one stomach contained Thysanoessa longicaudata . Off West Greenland, 75% of the fin whales caught between July and October had consumed krill (family Euphausiidae), 17% capelin ( Mallotus ) and 8% sand lance ( Ammodytes sp. ). Off eastern Newfoundland , they chiefly feed on capelin, but also take small quantities of euphausiids (mostly T. raschii and T. inermis ). In
3318-522: A specimen that had been stranded near Saint-Cyprien, southern France, in 1828 as Balaena musculus . Most later authors followed him in using the specific name musculus , until Frederick W. True (1898) showed that it referred to the blue whale. In 1846, British taxonomist John Edward Gray described a 16.7 m (55 ft) specimen from the Falkland Islands as Balaenoptera australis . In 1865, German naturalist Hermann Burmeister described
SECTION 20
#17327879035393476-439: A spherical lens. The retina is surrounded by a reflective layer of cells ( tapetum lucidum ), which bounces light back at the retina, enhancing eyesight in dark areas. However, light is bent more near the surface of the eye when in air as opposed to water; consequently, they can see much better in the air than in the water. The eyeballs are protected by a thick outer layer to prevent abrasions and an oily fluid (instead of tears) on
3634-409: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
3792-506: A third subspecies—this was supported by a 2013 study, which found that the Northern Hemisphere B. p. physalus was not composed of a single subspecies. A 2019 genetic study concluded that the North Pacific fin whales should be considered a subspecies, suggesting the name B. p. velifera (Scammon 1869). The three groups mix at most rarely. Clarke (2004) proposed a "pygmy" subspecies ( B. p. patachonica , Burmeister, 1865) that
3950-644: A translation error in early copies of Aristotle 's Historia Animalium (in Ancient Greek ), in which " ὁ μῦς τὸ κῆτος " ( ho mus to kētos , "the mouse, the whale so called") was mistakenly translated as " ὁ μυστικῆτος " ( ho mustikētos , "the Mysticetus"), which D. W. Rice (of the Society for Marine Mammalogy ) in Rice 1998 assumed was an ironic reference to the animals' great size. An alternate name for
4108-460: A wing-like manner similar to penguins and sea turtles . Flipper movement is continuous. While doing this, baleen whales use their tail fluke to propel themselves forward through vertical motion while using their flippers for steering, much like an otter . Some species leap out of the water, which may allow them to travel faster. Because of their great size, right whales are not flexible or agile like dolphins, and none can move their neck because of
4266-456: Is 11 to 12 m (36 to 39 ft) in length, a newborn weans from its mother, and the calf accompanies its mother to the summer feeding area. Although reports of up to six foetuses have been made, single births are far more typical. Females reproduce every two to three years. In the Northern Hemisphere, females reach sexual maturity between the ages of 6 and 12 at lengths of 17.7–19 m (58–62 ft), and around 20 m (66 ft) in
4424-576: Is a cosmopolitan species . It is found in all the world's major oceans and in waters ranging from the polar to the tropical. It is absent only from waters close to the ice pack at both the north and south extremities and relatively small areas of water away from the large oceans, such as the Red Sea , although they can reach into the Baltic Sea , a marginal sea of such conditions. The highest population density occurs in temperate and cool waters. It
4582-561: Is an archaic word for "whale", which came from Old French baleine , derived from the Latin word balæna , derived itself from the Ancient Greek φάλλαινα (phállaina) . Right whales got their name because of whalers preferring them over other species; they were essentially the "right whale" to catch. Rorquals use throat pleats to expand their mouths, which allow them to feed more effectively. However, rorquals need to build up water pressure in order to expand their mouths, leading to
4740-460: Is brownish to dark or light gray dorsally and white ventrally. The left side of the head is dark gray, while the right side exhibits a complex pattern of contrasting light and dark markings. The right lower jaw is white or light gray, which sometimes extends laterally and dorsally unto the upper jaw. Dark, oval-shaped areas of pigment called "flipper shadows" extend below and posterior to the pectoral fins. The penis size of fin whales typically reaches
4898-455: Is disturbed by vibrations, it triggers sensory hairs which send electric current to the brain, where vibrations are processed into sound. Baleen whales have a small, yet functional, vomeronasal organ . This allows baleen whales to detect chemicals and pheromones released by their prey. It is thought that 'tasting' the water is important for finding prey and tracking down other whales. They are believed to have an impaired sense of smell due to
Fin whale - Misplaced Pages Continue
5056-402: Is generally found more often on the dorsal fin, pectoral fins, and flukes. Other barnacles found on fin whales include the acorn barnacle Coronula reginae and the stalked barnacle Conchoderma auritum , which attaches to Coronula or the baleen. The harpacticid copepod Balaenophilus unisetus (heavy infestations of which have been found in fin whales caught off northwestern Spain) and
5214-500: Is less densely populated in the warmest, equatorial regions. The North Atlantic fin whale has an extensive distribution, occurring from the Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea , northward to Baffin Bay and Spitsbergen . In general, fin whales are more common north of approximately 30°N latitude , but considerable confusion arises about their occurrence south of 30°N latitude because of
5372-428: Is likely due to climate change which caused seasonally shifting accumulations of plankton in various parts of the world, necessitating travel over long distances, as well as the ability to feed on large baitballs to make such trips worthwhile. A 2017 analysis of body size based on data from the fossil record and modern baleen whales indicates that the evolution of gigantism in baleen whales occurred rather recently, within
5530-480: Is not recognized by the Society for Marine Mammalogy . The genetic distance between blue and fin whales has been compared to that between a chimpanzee and human (3.5 million years on the evolutionary tree.) Nevertheless, hybrid individuals between blue and fin whales with characteristics of both are known to occur with relative frequency in both the North Atlantic and North Pacific. The DNA profile of
5688-800: Is not well understood. Acoustic readings from passive-listening hydrophone arrays indicate a southward migration of the North Atlantic fin whale occurs in the autumn from the Labrador - Newfoundland region, south past Bermuda , and into the West Indies . One or more populations of fin whales are thought to remain year-round in high latitudes, moving offshore, but not southward in late autumn. A study based on resightings of identified fin whales in Massachusetts Bay indicates that calves often learn migratory routes from their mothers and return to their mother's feeding area in subsequent years. In
5846-501: Is only 1 millimeter (0.04 in) thick. The dermis, the layer underneath the epidermis, is also thin. The hypodermis, containing blubber, is the thickest part of the skin and functions as a means to conserve heat. Right whales have the thickest hypodermis of any cetacean, averaging 51 centimeters (20 in), though, as in all whales, it is thinner around openings (such as the blowhole) and limbs. Blubber may also be used to store energy during times of fasting. The connective tissue between
6004-472: Is probably due to the great degree of control necessary for constantly swimming. Necropsies on the brains of gray whales revealed iron oxide particles, which may allow them to find magnetic north like a compass . Unlike most animals, whales are conscious breathers. All mammals sleep, but whales cannot afford to become unconscious for long because they may drown. They are believed to exhibit unihemispheric slow-wave sleep , in which they sleep with half of
6162-544: Is purportedly darker in colour and has black baleen. He based this on a single physically mature 19.8 m (65 ft) female caught in the Antarctic in 1947–48, the smaller average size (a few feet) of sexually and physically mature fin whales caught by the Japanese around 50°S , and smaller, darker sexually immature fin whales caught in the Antarctic which he believed were a "migratory phase" of his proposed subspecies. The subspecies has not been genetically established, and
6320-509: Is ranked critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature . Besides hunting, baleen whales also face threats from marine pollution and ocean acidification . It has been speculated that man-made sonar results in strandings . They have rarely been kept in captivity, and this has only been attempted with juveniles or members of one of the smallest species. Baleen whales are cetaceans classified under
6478-579: Is repeated annually. The gray whale has the longest recorded migration of any mammal, with one traveling 23,000 kilometers (14,000 mi) from the Sea of Okhotsk to the Baja Peninsula . Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within
Fin whale - Misplaced Pages Continue
6636-472: Is still unknown, since these whales tend to migrate in the open ocean. It has been shown that populations of fin whales within the Mediterranean have preferred feeding locations that partially overlap with high concentrations of plastic pollution and microplastic debris. High concentrations of microplastics most likely overlap with fin whales' preferred feeding grounds because both microplastic and
6794-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
6952-414: Is the fastest among baleen whales, having been recorded travelling as fast as 10 m/s (36 km/h; 22 mph), and sustaining a speed of 2.5 m/s (9.0 km/h; 5.6 mph) for an extended period. While feeding, the rorqual jaw expands to a volume that can be bigger than the whale itself; to do this, the mouth inflates. The inflation of the mouth causes the cavum ventrale, the throat pleats on
7110-751: Is thought that their size increased with their dependence on baleen. However, the discovery of a skull of the toothed Llanocetus , the second-oldest mysticete, yielded a total length of 8 meters (26 ft), indicating filter feeding was not a driving feature in mysticete evolution. The discovery of Janjucetus and others like it suggests that baleen evolution went through several transitional phases. Species like Mammalodon colliveri had little to no baleen, while later species like Aetiocetus weltoni had both baleen and teeth, suggesting they had limited filter feeding capabilities; later genera like Cetotherium had no teeth in their mouth, meaning they were fully dependent on baleen and could only filter feed. However,
7268-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
7426-409: Is to circle schools of fish at high speed, frightening the fish into a tight ball, then turning on its side before engulfing the massed prey. Fin whales suffer from a number of pathological conditions. The parasitic copepod Pennella balaenopterae —usually found on the flank of fin whales—burrows into their blubber to feed on their blood, while the pseudo-stalked barnacle Xenobalanus globicipitis
7584-405: Is to members of its own genus, such as the minke whales. As of 2023, four subspecies are named, each with distinct physical features and vocalizations. The northern fin whale , B. p. physalus (Linnaeus 1758) inhabits the North Atlantic and the southern fin whale , B. p. quoyi (Fischer 1829) occupies the Southern Hemisphere . Most experts consider the fin whales of the North Pacific to be
7742-411: Is unknown where this occurred, but it is generally believed that they, like their descendants, followed plankton migrations. These primitive baleen whales had lost their dentition in favor of baleen, and are believed to have lived on a specialized benthic, plankton, or copepod diet like modern baleen whales. Baleen whales experienced their first radiation in the mid-Miocene . It is thought this radiation
7900-518: Is usually reversed, with the males being larger, but the females of all baleen whales are usually five percent larger than males. Sexual dimorphism is also displayed through whale song , notably in humpback whales where the males of the species sing elaborate songs. Male right whales have bigger callosities than female right whales. The males are generally more scarred than females which is thought to be because of aggression during mating season. The unique lungs of baleen whales are built to collapse under
8058-471: The Arctic and Antarctic . Gray whales are specialized for feeding on bottom-dwelling crustaceans . Rorquals are specialized at lunge-feeding, and have a streamlined body to reduce drag while accelerating. Right whales skim-feed, meaning they use their enlarged head to effectively take in a large amount of water and sieve the slow-moving prey. Males typically mate with more than one female ( polygyny ), although
SECTION 50
#17327879035398216-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
8374-642: The Chukchi Sea bordering the Arctic Ocean . They occur in high densities in the northern Gulf of Alaska and southeastern Bering Sea between May and October, with some movement through the Aleutian passes into and out of the Bering Sea. Several whales tagged between November and January off southern California were killed in the summer off central California, Oregon , British Columbia , and in
8532-606: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
8690-745: The Gotō Islands . The IWC prohibited hunting in the Southern Hemisphere in 1976. The Soviet Union engaged in the illegal killing of protected whale species in the North Pacific and Southern Hemisphere, over-reporting fin whale catches to cover up illegal takes of other species. The fin whale was given full protection from commercial whaling by the IWC in the North Pacific in 1976, and in the North Atlantic in 1987, with small exceptions for aboriginal catches and catches for research purposes. All populations worldwide remain listed as endangered species by
8848-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
9006-544: The Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle ) and colleagues suggested that, based on phylogenic criteria, there are four extant genera of rorquals. They recommend that the genus Balaenoptera be limited to the fin whale, have minke whales fall under the genus Pterobalaena , and have Rorqualus contain the Sei whale, Bryde's whale, Eden's whale (and by extension Rice's whale), the blue whale, and Omura's whale. The gray whale
9164-531: The Oligocene are the Mammalodontidae ( Mammalodon and Janjucetus ) from Australia . They were small with shortened rostra , and a primitive dental formula ( 3.1.4.3 3.1.4.3 ). In baleen whales, it is thought that enlarged mouths adapted for suction feeding evolved before specializations for bulk filter feeding . In the toothed Oligocene mammalodontid Janjucetus , the symphysis is short and
9322-780: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
9480-421: The ciliate Haematophagus also infest the baleen, the former feeding on the baleen itself and the latter on red blood cells. The remora Remora australis and occasionally the amphipod Cyamus balaenopterae can also be found on fin whales, both feeding on the skin. Infestations of the giant nematode Crassicauda boopis can cause inflammation of the renal arteries and potential kidney failure, while
9638-560: The fin whale ( B. physalus ), the Sei whale ( B. borealis ), Bryde's whale ( B. brydei ), Eden's whale ( B. edeni ), Rice's whale ( B. ricei ), the blue whale ( B. musculus ), the common minke whale ( B. acutorostrata ), the Antarctic minke whale ( B. bonaerensis ), Omura's whale ( B. omurai ), the humpback whale ( M. novaeangliae ), and the gray whale ( E. robustus ). In a 2012 review of cetacean taxonomy, Alexandre Hassanin (of
SECTION 60
#17327879035399796-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
9954-447: The humpback whale , the blue whale , Bryde's whale , the sei whale , and the minke whale . The family diverged from the other baleen whales in the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Miocene . Recent DNA evidence indicates the fin whale may be more closely related to the humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) and, in at least one study, the gray whale ( Eschrichtius robustus ), two whales in different genera, than it
10112-434: The parvorder Mysticeti, and consist of four extant families : Balaenidae ( right whales ), Balaenopteridae (rorquals), Eschrichtiidae ( gray whale ) and Cetotheriidae ( pygmy right whale ). Balaenids are distinguished by their enlarged head and thick blubber , while rorquals and gray whales generally have a flat head, long throat pleats, and are more streamlined than Balaenids. Rorquals also tend to be longer than
10270-539: The respiratory tract to hold gas while diving. Doing so may cause serious complications such as embolism . Unlike other mammals, the lungs of baleen whales lack lobes and are more sacculated. Like in humans, the left lung is smaller than the right to make room for the heart. To conserve oxygen, blood is rerouted from pressure-tolerant-tissue to internal organs, and they have a high concentration of myoglobin which allows them to hold their breath longer. The heart of baleen whales functions similarly to other mammals, with
10428-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
10586-458: The 2018 discovery of the toothless Maiabalaena indicates some lineages evolved toothlessness before baleen. Mystacodon selenensis is the earliest mysticete, dating back to 37 to 33 million years ago ( mya ) in the Late Eocene , and, like other early toothed mysticetes, or "archaeomysticetes", M. selenensis had heterodont dentition used for suction feeding. Archaeomysticetes from
10744-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
10902-545: The 6 m (20 ft) and 3,000 kg (6,600 lb) pygmy right whale to the 31 m (102 ft) and 190 t (210 short tons) blue whale , the largest known animal to have ever existed. They are sexually dimorphic . Baleen whales can have streamlined or large bodies, depending on the feeding behavior, and two limbs that are modified into flippers . The fin whale is the fastest baleen whale, recorded swimming at 10 m/s (36 km/h; 22 mph). Baleen whales use their baleen plates to filter out food from
11060-430: The 60 to 100 bpm in humans. When diving, their heart rate will drop to 4 to 15 bpm to conserve oxygen. Like toothed whales, they have a dense network of blood vessels ( rete mirabile ) which prevents heat-loss. Like in most mammals, heat is lost in their extremities , so, in baleen whales, warm blood in the arteries is surrounded by veins to prevent heat loss during transport. As well as this, heat inevitably given off by
11218-539: The Antarctic circumpolar current and its effects on global climate patterns is excluded as being causal for the same reason. Gigantism also was preceded by divergence of different mysticete lineages, meaning multiple lineages arrived at large size independently. It is possible the Plio-Pleistocene increase in seasonally intense upwellings , causing high-prey-density zones, led to gigantism. When swimming, baleen whales rely on their flippers for locomotion in
11376-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
11534-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
11692-401: The Gulf of Alaska. Fin whales have been observed feeding 250 miles south of Hawaii in mid-May, and several winter sightings have been made there. Some researchers have suggested that the whales migrate into Hawaiian waters primarily in the autumn and winter. Although fin whales are certainly migratory, moving seasonally in and out of high-latitude feeding areas, the overall migration pattern
11850-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
12008-590: The Ligurian-Corsican-Provençal Basin in the Mediterranean Sea they make dives as deep as 470 m (1,540 ft) to feed on the euphausiid Meganyctiphanes norvegica , while off the island of Lampedusa , between Tunisia and Sicily , they have been observed in mid-winter feeding on surface swarms of the small euphausiid Nyctiphanes couchi . In the Southern Hemisphere, they feed almost exclusively on euphausiids (mainly
12166-419: The North Atlantic right whale ( E. glacialis ). Cetotheriidae consists of only one living member: the pygmy right whale ( Caperea marginata ). The first descriptions date back to the 1840s of bones and baleen plates resembling a smaller version of the right whale, and was named Balaena marginata . In 1864, it was moved into the genus Caperea after a skull of another specimen was discovered. Six years later,
12324-555: The North Atlantic, they prey on euphausiids in the genera Meganyctiphanes , Thysanoessa and Nyctiphanes and small schooling fish (e.g. the genera Clupea , Mallotus , and Ammodytes ). Of the 1,609 fin whale stomachs examined at the Hvalfjörður whaling station in southwestern Iceland from 1967 to 1989 (caught between June and September), 96% contained only krill, 2.5% krill and fish, 0.8% some fish remains, 0.7% capelin ( M. villosus ), and 0.1% sandeel (family Ammodytidae);
12482-482: The Pacific, migration patterns are poorly characterized. Although some fin whales are apparently present year-round in the Gulf of California , there is a significant increase in their numbers in the winter and spring. Southern fin whales migrate seasonally from relatively high-latitude Antarctic feeding grounds in the summer to low-latitude breeding and calving areas in the winter. The location of winter breeding areas
12640-484: The Southern Hemisphere. Calves remain with their mothers for about a year. Full physical maturity is attained between 25 and 30 years. Fin whales have a maximum life span of at least 94 years of age, although specimens have been found aged at an estimated 135–140 years. The fin whale is one of the fastest cetaceans and can sustain speeds between 37 km/h (23 mph) and 41 km/h (25 mph) and bursts up to 46 km/h (29 mph) have been recorded, earning
12798-489: The Tyrrhenian coastline of Italy was found to be infected with Morbillivirus and the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii , as well as carrying heavy loads of organochlorine pollutants . In the 19th century, the fin whale was occasionally hunted by open-boat whalers , but it was relatively safe, because it could easily outrun ships of the time and often sank when killed, making the pursuit a waste of time for whalers. However,
12956-627: The US National Marine Fisheries Service and the International Conservation Union Red List . Baleen whale Baleen whales ( / b ə ˈ l iː n / ), also known as whalebone whales , are marine mammals of the parvorder Mysticeti in the infraorder Cetacea ( whales , dolphins and porpoises ), which use keratinaceous baleen plates (or "whalebone") in their mouths to sieve planktonic creatures from
13114-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
13272-505: The area. In June 2012, a pod of killer whales was seen in La Paz Bay, in the Gulf of California, chasing a fin whale for over an hour before finally killing it and feeding on its carcass. The whale bore numerous tooth rakes over its back and dorsal fin; several killer whales flanked it on either side, with one individual visible under water biting at its right lower jaw. In July 1908, a whaler reportedly saw two killer whales attack and kill
13430-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
13588-500: The arteries warms blood in the surrounding veins as it travels back into the core . This is otherwise known as countercurrent exchange . To counteract overheating while in warmer waters, baleen whales reroute blood to the skin to accelerate heat-loss. They have the largest blood corpuscles ( red and white blood cells ) of any mammal, measuring 10 micrometers (4.1 × 10 in) in diameter, as opposed to human's 7.1-micrometer (2.8 × 10 in) blood corpuscles. When sieved from
13746-457: The brain while the other half remains active. This behavior was only documented in toothed whales until footage of a humpback whale sleeping (vertically) was shot in 2014. It is largely unknown how baleen whales produce sound because of the lack of a melon and vocal cords . In a 2007 study, it was discovered that the larynx had U-shaped folds which are thought to be similar to vocal cords. They are positioned parallel to air flow, as opposed to
13904-653: The capacity of their throats, allowing them to filter larger volumes of water at once. Gray whales are bottom-feeders, meaning they sift through sand to get their food. They usually turn on their sides, scoop up sediment into their mouths and filter out benthic creatures like amphipods , which leave noticeable marks on their heads. The pygmy right whale is easily confused with minke whales because of their similar characteristics, such as their small size, dark gray tops, light gray bottoms, and light eye patches. Molecular phylogeny suggests Mysticeti split from Odontoceti (toothed whales) between 26 and 17 million years ago between
14062-1125: The coastal waters off British Columbia (a sighting occurred in Johnstone Strait in 2011) and Kodiak Island . Size of the local population migrating to Hawaiian Archipelago is unknown. Finbacks are also relatively abundant along the coast of Peru and Chile (in Chile, most notably off Los Lagos region such as Gulf of Corcovado in Chiloé National Park , Punta de Choros , port of Mejillones , and Caleta Zorra . Year-round confirmations indicate possible residents off pelagic north eastern to central Chile such as around coastal Caleta Chañaral and Pingüino de Humboldt National Reserve , east of Juan Fernández Islands , and northeast of Easter Island and possible wintering ground exist for eastern south Pacific population. Among Northern Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal , such as along Sri Lanka , India , and Malaysia , sightings and older records of fin whales exist. The only known predator of
14220-796: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
14378-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
14536-414: The degree of polygyny varies with the species. Male strategies for reproductive success vary between performing ritual displays ( whale song ) or lek mating . Calves are typically born in the winter and spring months and females bear all the responsibility for raising them. Mothers fast for a relatively long period of time over the period of migration, which varies between species. Baleen whales produce
14694-468: The difficulty in distinguishing fin whales from Bryde's whales . Extensive ship surveys have led researchers to conclude that the summer feeding range of fin whales in the western North Atlantic is mainly between 41°20'N and 51°00'N , from shore seaward to the 1,000 fathoms (6,000 ft; 1,800 m) contour. Summer distribution of fin whales in the North Pacific is the immediate offshore waters from central Baja California to Japan and as far north as
14852-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
15010-430: The end of the mouth. This is probably because they feed on slow or immobile prey, combined with the fact that most sunlight does not pass 9.1 meters (30 ft), and hence they do not need acute vision. A whale's eye is adapted for seeing both in the euphotic and aphotic zones by increasing or decreasing the pupil 's size to prevent damage to the eye. As opposed to land mammals which have a flattened lens , whales have
15168-439: The exception of the bowhead whale. Rorquals have a higher proportion of muscle tissue and tend to be negatively buoyant, whereas right whales have a higher proportion of blubber and are positively buoyant. Gray whales are easily distinguished from the other rorquals by their sleet-gray color, dorsal ridges (knuckles on the back), and their gray-white scars left from parasites. As with the other rorquals, their throat pleats increase
15326-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
15484-508: The fin whale has grooves between the tip of the lower jaw and the navel. Among whale species, the fin whale is exceeded in size only by the blue whale . Adults usually average 40 to 50 tonnes in weight. Males have a mean length of 21 m (69 ft), and females of 22 m (72 ft). They are sexually dimorphic , with females generally being longer and heavier than males. The largest specimens can attain lengths of over 26 m (85 ft) and weights of 77 to 81 tonnes. The fin whale
15642-489: The fin whale is the killer whale , with at least 20 eyewitness and second-hand accounts of attack or harassment. They usually flee and offer little resistance to attack. Only a few confirmed fatalities have occurred. In October 2005, 16 killer whales attacked and killed a fin whale in the Canal de Ballenas , Gulf of California , after chasing it for about an hour. They fed on its sinking carcass for about 15 minutes before leaving
15800-716: The fin whale the nickname "the greyhound of the sea". Fin whales are more gregarious than other rorquals, and often live in groups of 6–10, although feeding groups may reach up to 100 animals. Like other whales, males make long, loud, low- frequency sounds. The vocalizations of blue and fin whales are the lowest-frequency sounds made by any animal. Most sounds are frequency-modulated (FM) down-swept infrasonic pulses from 16 to 40 hertz frequency (the range of sounds that most humans can hear falls between 20 hertz and 20 kilohertz). Each sound lasts one to two seconds , and various sound combinations occur in patterned sequences lasting 7 to 15 minutes each. The whale then repeats
15958-410: The fin whale was a prized kill during the "heyday" of whaling , from 1840 to 1861. It remained so into the 20th century but decades of over harvesting contributed to declining numbers through the late 20th century. Over 725,000 fin whales were reportedly taken from the Southern Hemisphere between 1905 and 1976. Post-recovery numbers of the southern subspecies are predicted to be less than 50% of
16116-636: The first radiation in the late Oligocene. Eomysticetus and others like it showed no evidence in the skull of echolocation abilities, suggesting they mainly relied on their eyesight for navigation. The eomysticetes had long, flat rostra that lacked teeth and had blowholes located halfway up the dorsal side of the snout. Though the palate is not well-preserved in these specimens, they are thought to have had baleen and been filter feeders. Miocene baleen whales were preyed upon by larger predators like killer sperm whales and megalodon . The lineages of rorquals and right whales split almost 20 mya. It
16274-476: The fused cervical vertebrae ; this sacrifices speed for stability in the water. The hind legs are enclosed inside the body, and are thought to be vestigial organs . However, a 2014 study suggests that the pelvic bone serves as support for whale genitalia . Rorquals, needing to build speed to feed, have several adaptions for reducing drag , including a streamlined body; a small dorsal fin, relative to its size; and lack of external ears or long hair. The fin whale
16432-751: The genera Euphausia and Thysanoessa ), as well as taking small amounts of amphipods (e.g. Themisto gaudichaudii ) and various species of fish. Of the more than 16,000 fin whales caught by the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Hemisphere between 1961 and 1965 that contained food in their stomachs, 99.4% fed on euphausiids, 0.5% on fish, and 0.1% on amphipods. In the Southern Ocean they mainly consume E. superba . The animal feeds by opening its jaws while swimming at some 11 km/h (6.8 mph) in one study, which causes it to engulf up to 70 m (18,000 US gal; 15,000 imp gal) of water in one gulp. It then closes its jaws and pushes
16590-443: The genus Neocalanus , small schooling fish (e.g. the genera Engraulis , Mallotus , Clupea , and Theragra ), and squid. Based on stomach content analysis of over 19,500 fin whales caught by the Japanese whaling fleet in the North Pacific from 1952 to 1971, 64.1% contained only krill, 25.5% copepods, 5.0% fish, 3.4% krill and copepods and 1.7% squid. Nemoto (1959) analyzed the stomach contents of about 7500 fin whales caught in
16748-433: The hypodermis and muscles allows only limited movement to occur between them. Unlike toothed whales, baleen whales have small hairs on the top of their head, stretching from the tip of the rostrum to the blowhole, and, in right whales, on the chin. Like other marine mammals , they lack sebaceous and sweat glands. The baleen of baleen whales are keratinous plates. They are made of a calcified, hard α-keratin material,
16906-455: The implication can be made that the feeding migration of fin whales every year in circumpolar waters can be associated with pathologic risk. An emaciated 13 m (43 ft) female fin whale, which stranded along the Belgian coast in 1997, was found to be infected with lesions of Morbillivirus . In January 2011, a 16.7 m (55 ft) emaciated adult male fin whale stranded dead on
17064-428: The lack of the olfactory bulb , but they do have an olfactory tract . Baleen whales have few if any taste buds, suggesting they have lost their sense of taste. They do retain salt-receptor taste-buds suggesting that they can taste saltiness. Most species of baleen whale migrate long distances from high latitude waters during spring and summer months to more tropical waters during winter months. This migration cycle
17222-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
17380-413: The last 3 million years. Before 4.5 million years ago, few baleen whales exceeded 10 meters (33 ft) in length; the two largest Miocene species were less than 13 m (43 ft) in length. The initial evolution of baleen and filter feeding long preceded the evolution of gigantic body size, indicating the evolution of novel feeding mechanisms did not cause the evolution of gigantism. The formation of
17538-851: The late Oligocene or middle Miocene , but the earliest Mysticeti fossils date to at least 34 million years ago. Their evolutionary link to archaic toothed cetaceans ( Archaeoceti ) remained unknown until the extinct Janjucetus hunderi was discovered in the early 1990s in Victoria, Australia . While, unlike a modern baleen whale, Janjucetus lacked baleen in its jaw, the anatomy shows sufficient similarity to baleen whales. It appears to have had very limited apparent biosonar capabilities. Its jaw contained teeth, with incisors and canines built for stabbing and molars and premolars built for tearing. These early mysticetes were exceedingly small compared to modern baleen whales, with species like Mammalodon measuring no greater than 3 meters (10 ft). It
17696-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
17854-546: The later introduction of steam-powered boats and harpoons that exploded on impact made it possible to kill and secure them along with blue and sei whales on an industrial scale. As other whale species became overhunted, the whaling industry turned to the still-abundant fin whale as a substitute. It was primarily hunted for its blubber, oil , and baleen. Around 704,000 fin whales were caught in Antarctic whaling operations alone between 1904 and 1975. The introduction of factory ships with stern slipways in 1925 substantially increased
18012-1055: The latter. Cetaceans ( whales , dolphins , and porpoises ) and artiodactyls are now classified under the order Cetartiodactyla , often still referred to as Artiodactyla (given that the cetaceans are deeply nested with the artiodactyls). The closest living relatives to baleen whales are toothed whales both from the infraorder Cetacea . Bowhead whale [REDACTED] Southern right whale [REDACTED] North Atlantic right whale [REDACTED] North Pacific right whale [REDACTED] Pygmy right whale [REDACTED] Common minke whale [REDACTED] Southern minke whale [REDACTED] Gray whale [REDACTED] Humpback whale [REDACTED] Fin whale [REDACTED] Blue whale [REDACTED] Omura's whale Eden's whale [REDACTED] Rice's whale [REDACTED] Sei whale [REDACTED] Bryde's whale [REDACTED] Balaenidae consists of two genera: Eubalaena (right whales) and Balaena (the bowhead whale , B. mysticetus ). Balaenidae
18170-406: The lower jaw. The auditory meatus is blocked by connective tissue and an ear plug, which connects to the eardrum . The inner-ear bones are contained in the tympanic bulla , a bony capsule. However, this is attached to the skull, suggesting that vibrations passing through the bone is important. Sinuses may reflect vibrations towards the cochlea . It is known that when the fluid inside the cochlea
18328-435: The major difference being the size. The heart can reach 454 kilograms (1,000 lb), but is still proportional to the whale's size. The muscular wall of the ventricle , which is responsible for pumping blood out of the heart, can be 7.6 to 12.7 centimeters (3 to 5 in) thick. The aorta, an artery , can be 1.9 centimeters (.75 in) thick. Their resting heart rate is 60 to 140 beats per minute (bpm), as opposed to
18486-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
18644-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
18802-467: The mouth enlarged, the rostrum is wide, and the edges of the maxillae are thin, indicating an adaptation for suction feeding. The aetiocetid Chonecetus still had teeth, but the presence of a groove on the interior side of each mandible indicates the symphysis was elastic, which would have enabled rotation of each mandible, an initial adaptation for bulk feeding like in modern mysticetes. The first toothless ancestors of baleen whales appeared before
18960-491: The northern North Pacific and Bering Sea from 1952 to 1958, found that they mainly preyed on euphausiids around the Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska and schooling fish in the northern Bering Sea and off Kamchatka . Of the fin whale stomachs sampled off British Columbia between 1963 and 1967, euphausiids dominated the diet for four of the five years (82.3 to 100% of the diet), while copepods only formed
19118-594: The number of whales taken per year. By 1962–63, sei whale catches began to increase as fin whales became scarce. Coastal groups in northeast Asian waters, along with many other baleen species, were likely driven into serious perils or functional extinctions by industrial catches by Japan covering wide ranges of China and Korean EEZ within a very short period in the 20th century. After the cease of exploiting Asian stocks, Japan kept mass commercial and illegal hunts until 1975. Several thousand individuals were hunted from various stations mainly along coasts of Hokkaido, Sanriku, and
19276-482: The open ocean. The highest population density occurs in temperate and cool waters. Its prey mainly consists of smaller schooling fish , small squid, or crustaceans, including copepods and krill . Mating takes place in temperate, low-latitude seas during the winter. Fin whales are often observed in pods of 6–10 animals, with whom they communicate utilizing frequency-modulated sounds, ranging from 16 to 40 hertz. Like all other large whales,
19434-440: The parvorder is "Mystacoceti" (from Greek μύσταξ "mustache" + κῆτος "whale"), which, although obviously more appropriate and occasionally used in the past, has been superseded by "Mysticeti" ( junior synonym ). Mysticetes are also known as baleen whales for their baleen , which they use to sieve plankton and other small organisms from the water. The term "baleen" ( Middle English baleyn, ballayne, ballien, bellane , etc.)
19592-574: The past 100 years, the dramatic increase in ocean noise from shipping and naval activity may have slowed the recovery of the fin whale population, by impeding communications between males and receptive females. Fin whale songs can penetrate over 2,500 m (8,200 ft) below the sea floor and seismologists can use those song waves to assist in underwater surveys. When feeding, fin whales blow five to seven times in quick succession, but while traveling or resting will blow once every minute or two. On their terminal (last) dive they arch their back high out of
19750-408: The perpendicular vocal cords of terrestrial mammals. These may control air flow and cause vibrations. The walls of the larynx are able to contract which may generate sound with support from the arytenoid cartilages . The muscles surrounding the larynx may expel air rapidly or maintain a constant volume while diving. The eyes of baleen whales are relatively small for their size and are positioned near
19908-449: The possibilities that the sounds were due to equipment malfunction, geophysical phenomena, or even part of a Soviet Union scheme for detecting enemy submarines. Eventually, biologists demonstrated that the sounds were the vocalizations of fin whales. Direct association of these vocalizations with the reproductive season for the species and that only males make the sounds point to these vocalizations as possible reproductive displays. Over
20066-549: The pre-whaling population, even by 2100, due to long-lasting impacts of whaling and slow recovery rates. As of 2018, it was assessed as vulnerable by the IUCN . B. acutorostrata ( minke whale ) [REDACTED] B. musculus ( blue whale ) [REDACTED] B. borealis ( sei whale ) [REDACTED] Eschrichtius robustus ( gray whale ) [REDACTED] B. physalus ( fin whale ) [REDACTED] Megaptera novaeangliae ( humpback whale ) [REDACTED] The fin whale
20224-400: The pressure instead of resisting the pressure which would damage the lungs, enabling some, like the fin whale, to dive to a depth of −470 meters (−1,540 ft). The whale lungs are very efficient at extracting oxygen from the air, usually 80%, whereas humans only extract 20% of oxygen from inhaled air. Lung volume is relatively low compared to terrestrial mammals because of the inability of
20382-529: The pygmy right whale was classified under the family Neobalaenidae. Despite its name, the pygmy right whale is more genetically similar to rorquals and gray whales than to right whales. A study published in 2012, based on bone structure, moved the pygmy right whale from the family Neobalaenidae to the family Cetotheriidae, making it a living fossil ; Neobalaenidae was demoted to subfamily level as Neobalaeninae. Rorquals consist of three genera ( Balaenoptera , Megaptera , and Eschrichtius ) and 11 species:
20540-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
20698-439: The sequences in bouts lasting up to many days. The vocal sequences have source levels of up to 184–186 decibels relative to 1 micropascal at a reference distance of one metre and can be detected hundreds of miles from their source. When fin whale sounds were first recorded by US biologists, they did not realize that these unusually loud, long, pure and regular sounds were being made by whales. They first investigated
20856-481: The smaller C. crassicauda infects the lower urinary tract . Out of 87 whales taken and necropsied from the North Atlantic, infection from Crassicauda boopis was found to be very prevalent and invasive, indicating high probability that it was responsible for causing death in these whales. C. boopis was found in 94% of the whales examined. The worms were usually enveloped by "exuberant tissue reactions which in some whales obstructed multiple renal veins". The parasite
21014-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
21172-435: The surface of the eye. Baleen whales appear to have limited color vision, as they lack S-cones . The mysticete ear is adapted for hearing underwater, where it can hear sound frequencies as low as 7 Hz and as high as 22 kHz , distinct from odontocetes whose hearing is optimized for ultrasonic frequencies. It is largely unknown how sound is received by baleen whales. Unlike in toothed whales, sound does not pass through
21330-437: The third stomach, where it meets fat-digesting enzymes, and is then mixed with an alkaline liquid to neutralize the acid from the fore-stomach to prevent damage to the intestinal tract . Their intestinal tract is highly adapted to absorb the most nutrients from food; the walls are folded and contain copious blood vessels , allowing for a greater surface area over which digested food and water can be absorbed. Baleen whales get
21488-414: The underside stretching to the navel , to expand, increasing the amount of water that the mouth can store. The mandible is connected to the skull by dense fibers and cartilage ( fibrocartilage ), allowing the jaw to swing open at almost a 90° angle. The mandibular symphysis is also fibrocartilaginous, allowing the jaw to bend which lets in more water. To prevent stretching the mouth too far, rorquals have
21646-410: The upper jaw and are absent in the mid-jaw, forming two separate combs of baleen. The plates decrease in size as they go further back into the jaw; the largest ones are called the "main baleen plates" and the smallest ones are called the "accessory plates". Accessory plates taper off into small hairs. Unlike other whales (and most other mammals), the females are larger than the males. Sexual dimorphism
21804-558: The water back out of its mouth through its baleen , which allows the water to leave while trapping the prey. An adult has between 262 and 473 baleen plates on each side of the mouth. Each plate is made of keratin that frays out into fine hairs on the ends inside the mouth near the tongue. Each plate can measure up to 76 cm (30 in) in length and 30 cm (12 in) in width. The whale routinely dives to depths of more than 200 m (660 ft) where it executes an average of four "lunges", to accumulate krill. Each gulp provides
21962-401: The water by either lunge-feeding or skim-feeding. Baleen whales have fused neck vertebrae , and are unable to turn their heads at all. Baleen whales have two blowholes . Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. They have a layer of fat, or blubber , under the skin to keep warm in the cold water. Although baleen whales are widespread, most species prefer the colder waters of
22120-434: The water they need from their food; however, the salt content of most of their prey ( invertebrates ) is similar to that of seawater, whereas the salt content of a whale's blood is considerably lower (three times lower) than that of seawater. The whale kidney is adapted to excreting excess salt; however, while producing urine more concentrated than seawater, it wastes a lot of water which must be replaced. Baleen whales have
22278-399: The water, but rarely raise their flukes out of the water. They then dive to depths of up to 470 m (1,540 ft) when feeding or a few hundred feet when resting or traveling. The average feeding dive off California and Baja lasts 6 minutes, with a maximum of 17 minutes; when traveling or resting they usually dive for only a few minutes at a time. Like many large rorquals, the fin whale
22436-401: The water, food is swallowed and travels through the esophagus where it enters a three-chambered-stomach. The first compartment is known as the fore-stomach; this is where food gets ground up into an acidic liquid, which is then squirted into the main stomach. Like in humans, the food is mixed with hydrochloric acid and protein-digesting enzymes . Then, the partly digested food is moved into
22594-555: The water. Mysticeti comprises the families Balaenidae ( right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae ( rorquals ), Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale ) and Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale ). There are currently 16 species of baleen whales. While cetaceans were historically thought to have descended from mesonychians , molecular evidence instead supports them as a clade of even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla). Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago . Baleen whales range in size from
22752-457: The whale with approximately 10 kg (22 lb) of food. One whale can consume up to 1,800 kg (4,000 lb) of food a day, leading scientists to conclude that the whale spends about three hours a day feeding to meet its energy requirements, roughly the same as humans. If prey patches are not sufficiently dense, or are located too deep in the water, the whale has to spend a larger portion of its day searching for food. One hunting technique
22910-610: The whale's food sources are near high trophic upwelling areas. The total historical North Pacific population was estimated at 42,000 to 45,000 before the start of whaling. Of this, the population in the eastern portion of the North Pacific was estimated to be 25,000 to 27,000. Surveys conducted in 1991, 1993, 1996, and 2001 produced estimates between 1,600 and 3,200 off California and 280 and 380 off Oregon and Washington . Surveys in coastal waters of British Columbia in summers 2004 and 2005 produced abundance estimates of approximately 500 animals. Fin whales might have started returning to
23068-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
23226-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
23384-494: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
23542-555: Was caused by global climate change and major tectonic activity when Antarctica and Australia separated from each other, creating the Antarctic Circumpolar Current . Balaenopterids grew bigger during this time, with species like Balaenoptera sibbaldina perhaps rivaling the blue whale in terms of size, though other studies disagree that any baleen whale grew that large in the Miocene. The increase in size
23700-467: Was determined to be unidirectional from fin to blue whales. Despite their smaller size, fin whales have similar cruising and sprinting speeds to blue whales, which would allow fin males to complete courtship chases with blue females. The body is relatively thin with a slender rostrum and large hook-like dorsal fins that are situated in the upper fourth of the body. It has an elongated ridge on its back, and around 350 to 400 baleen plates . Like all rorquals,
23858-416: Was first described by Friderich Martens in 1675 and by Paul Dudley in 1725. The former description was used as the primary basis for the species Balaena physalus by Carl Linnaeus in 1758. In 1804, Bernard Germain de Lacépède reclassified the species as Balaenoptera rorqual , based on a specimen that had stranded on Île Sainte-Marguerite ( Cannes , France) in 1798. In 1830, Louis Companyo described
24016-526: Was formerly classified in its own family. The two populations, one in the Sea of Okhotsk and Sea of Japan and the other in eastern Pacific are thought to be genetically and physiologically dissimilar. However, there is some discussion as to whether the gray whale should be classified into its own family, or as a rorqual, with recent studies favoring the latter. The taxonomic name "Mysticeti" ( / ˌ m ɪ s t ɪ ˈ s iː t aɪ / ) apparently derives from
24174-410: Was most likely by environmental contamination, involving shedding of larvae in urine. Major inflammatory lesions in the mesenteric arteries suggested that the worm larvae were ingested and migrated to the kidney. These observations suggest that infection from C. boopis can be "lethal by inducing congestive renal failure". Injury to the vascular system is also a result of moderate infections. Therefore,
24332-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
24490-509: Was thought to have consisted of only one genus until studies done through the early 2000s reported that bowhead whales and right whales are morphologically (different skull shape) and phylogenically different. According to a study done by H. C. Rosenbaum (of the American Museum of Natural History ) and colleagues, the North Pacific ( E. japonica ) and Southern right ( E. australis ) whales are more closely related to each other than to
24648-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
24806-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
24964-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
#538461