The largest predators in Earth’s oceans are typically vertebrates, so when palaeontologists recently announced they’d found fossils from a 19m-long octopus that lived during the Late Cretaceous, it’s no surprise a lot of people were left scratching their heads. What is Nanaimoteuthis haggarti? This colossal cephalopod is perhaps the closest palaeontologists have ever got to finding […]
Tag: sperm whales
Rare footage shows whales working together to support mother and her newborn – video
Scientists have managed to film a sperm whale giving birth while other female whales worked together to support the mother and her newborn. A team from Project Ceti, an international effort seeking to understand how whales communicate, was in a boat near a pod of 11 whales off the coast of the Caribbean island of Dominica on […]
Giant Sperm Whale Washes Onto Nantucket Beach in a Rare and Sobering Event
A massive sperm whale that washed onto a Nantucket beach is drawing national attention as scientists and local officials work to understand what happened and how to manage the remains. According to CBS Boston, the fifty foot male whale weighs an incredible fifty two tons, making it impossible for crews to remove from the shoreline. […]
Ocean’s most powerful, ruthless killers: The world’s top 9 marine predators that rule the waves
In the ocean, everything relies on tiny plankton.These provide nutrients for animals at the bottom of the food web which are eaten by larger species, and so on. At the top of the food chain, large predators (often with huge teeth) have perfected their hunting strategies for millennia, giving them the best possible chance to […]
Nature’s weirdest defenders: From blood-shooting lizards to slime-spewing fish, 10 creatures that fight back dirty if attacked
Nature isn’t just red in tooth and claw – sometimes it’s downright bizarre. Across the animal kingdom, evolution has equipped creatures with an astonishing armoury of unconventional, often outrageous defence strategies. Some wrap themselves in mucus sleeping bags, others weaponise their own skeletons or bodily fluids – and a few simply out-slime anything that dares […]
South Carolina man pleads guilty to illegally selling sperm whale teeth and bones
A South Carolina man pleaded guilty to importing and selling sperm whale teeth and bones, a violation of federal wildlife laws, the Justice Department announced. Lauren H. DeLoach, 69, of Saint Helena Island, admitted to importing sperm whale parts to South Carolina, including at least 30 shipments from Australia, Latvia, Norway, and Ukraine, between 2021 […]
‘It’s nonstop’: how noise pollution threatens the return of Norway’s whales
From the moment that the biologist Dr Heike Vester presses play, the sound of the static of the fjord fills the room. First comes the constant, steady rumbling of a boat engine. Then, every eight seconds, like a foreboding bass drum, comes the explosion of seismic airguns – extremely loud blasts used in oil and […]
Sperm Whales Vanish from Gulf of California as Ecosystem Shifts
A new study highlights the concerning departure of sperm whales from Mexico’s Gulf of California, suggesting broader signs of ecosystem instability. The study, published in PeerJ Life and Environment, details how these apex predators have vanished from the region in response to dramatic drops in the jumbo squid population, their primary food source. Sperm whales […]