Sensory Hairs in the Bowhead Whale, <scp>B</scp>alaena mysticetus (Cetacea, Mammalia)

Drake, Summer E.; Crish, Samuel D.; George, J. C.; Stimmelmayr, R.; Thewissen, J. G. M.

doi:10.1002/ar.23163

Cited by 42 publications

(47 citation statements)

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“…() published several of these fetuses, and Drake et al. () published a photo of the hair pattern on the face of one of them. We staged specimens following the criteria of Thewissen & Heyning () for dolphins.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary aspects of the development of teeth and baleen in the bowhead whale

et al. 2017

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In utero, baleen whales initiate the development of several dozens of teeth in upper and lower jaws. These tooth germs reach the bell stage and are sometimes mineralized, but toward the end of prenatal life they are resorbed and no trace remains after birth. Around the time that the germs disappear, the keratinous baleen plates start to form in the upper jaw, and these form the food-collecting mechanism. Baleen whale ancestors had two generations of teeth and never developed baleen, and the prenatal teeth of modern fetuses are usually interpreted as an evolutionary leftover. We investigated the development of teeth and baleen in bowhead whale fetuses using histological and immunohistochemical evidence. We found that upper and lower dentition initially follow similar developmental pathways. As development proceeds, upper and lower tooth germs diverge developmentally. Lower tooth germs differ along the length of the jaw, reminiscent of a heterodont dentition of cetacean ancestors, and lingual processes of the dental lamina represent initiation of tooth bud formation of replacement teeth. Upper tooth germs remain homodont and there is no evidence of a secondary dentition. After these germs disappear, the oral epithelium thickens to form the baleen plates, and the protein FGF-4 displays a signaling pattern reminiscent of baleen plates. In laboratory mammals, FGF-4 is not involved in the formation of hair or palatal rugae, but it is involved in tooth development. This leads us to propose that the signaling cascade that forms teeth in most mammals has been exapted to be involved in baleen plate ontogeny in mysticetes.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary aspects of the development of teeth and baleen in the bowhead whale

et al. 2017

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“…Somatosensory perception includes the sense of touch (via pressure), pain, temperature, and body position (Kremers et al 2016a). Cetacean skin is well-innervated and very sensitive to touch (Ridgway and Carder 1990), and most cetaceans possess vibrissae at birth, which are quickly lost in odontocetes, but common in adult mysticetes TORRES: A SENSE OF SCALE FOR FORAGING CETACEANS (Ling 1977, Drake et al 2015. In the scale-of-senses schematics, somatosensory perception is differentiated between detection of prey signals through vibrissae and skin, and reception of ocean property signals (e.g., temperature).…”

Section: Somatosensory Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A sense of scale: Foraging cetaceans' use of scale‐dependent multimodal sensory systems

Torres

2017

Marine Mammal Science

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Research on cetacean foraging ecology is central to our understanding of their spatial and behavioral ecology. Yet, functional mechanisms by which cetaceans detect prey across different scales remain unclear. Here, I postulate that cetaceans utilize a scaledependent, multimodal sensory system to assess and increase prey encounters. I review the literature on cetacean sensory systems related to foraging ecology, and hypothesize the effective scales of each sensory modality to inform foraging opportunities. Next, I build two "scale-of-senses" schematics for the general groups of dolphins and baleen whales. These schematics illustrate the hypothetical interchange of sensory modalities used to locate and discriminate prey at spatial scales ranging from 0 m to 1,000 km: (1) vision, (2) audition (sound production and sound reception), (3) chemoreception, (4) magnetoreception, and somatosensory perception of (5) prey, or (6) oceanographic stimuli. The schematics illustrate how a cetacean may integrate sensory modalities to form an adaptive foraging landscape as a function of distance to prey. The scale-of-senses schematic is flexible, allowing for case-specific application and enhancement with improved cetacean sensory data. The framework serves to improve our understanding of functional cetacean foraging ecology, and to develop new hypotheses, methods, and results regarding how cetaceans forage at multiple scales.

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“…At the same time, Indian river dolphins exhibit a powerful and highly specialized biosonar that allows orientation, feeding, and communication within their kin. A system of vibrissae on their long snout [Norman and Fraser, 1948;Martin et al, 2011;Drake et al, 2015] may help platanistids in the detection of prey. A comparable specialization was found in the Guyana dolphin (Sotalia guianensis) , a South American delphinid, which can detect the weak electric fields of fish by means of receptors in their vibrissal crypts [Czech-Damal et al, 2011].…”

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The Neocortex of Indian River Dolphins (Genus Platanista): Comparative, Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

Knopf¹,

Hof²,

Oelschläger³

2016

Brain Behav Evol

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We investigated the morphology of four primary neocortical projection areas (somatomotor, somatosensory, auditory, visual) qualitatively and quantitatively in the Indian river dolphins (Platanista gangetica gangetica, P. gangetica minor) with histological and stereological methods. For comparison, we included brains of other toothed whale species. Design-based stereology was applied to the primary neocortical areas (M1, S1, A1, V1) of the Indian river dolphins and compared to those of the bottlenose dolphin with respect to layers III and V. These neocortical fields were identified using existing electrophysiological and morphological data from marine dolphins as to their topography and histological structure, including the characteristics of the neuron populations concerned. In contrast to other toothed whales, the visual area (V1) of the ‘blind' river dolphins seems to be rather small. M1 is displaced laterally and the auditory area (A1) is larger than in marine species with respect to total brain size. The layering is similar in the cortices of all the toothed whale brains investigated; a layer IV could not be identified. Cell density in layer III is always higher than in layer V. The maximal neuron density in P. gangetica gangetica is found in layer III of A1, followed by layers III in V1, S1, and M1. The cell density in layer V is at a similar level in all primary areas. There are, however, some differences in neuron density between the two subspecies of Indian river dolphins. Taken as a whole, it appears that the neocortex of platanistids exhibits a considerable expansion of the auditory field. Even more than other toothed whales, they seem to depend on their biosonar abilities for navigation, hunting, and communication in their riverine habitat.

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Sensory Hairs in the Bowhead Whale, Balaena mysticetus (Cetacea, Mammalia)

Cited by 42 publications

References 54 publications

Evolutionary aspects of the development of teeth and baleen in the bowhead whale

Evolutionary aspects of the development of teeth and baleen in the bowhead whale

A sense of scale: Foraging cetaceans' use of scale‐dependent multimodal sensory systems

The Neocortex of Indian River Dolphins (Genus <b><i>Platanista</i></b>): Comparative, Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis

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