Lecture 15 Flashcards
How many air breathing marine species of Amphibians are there?
None
How many air breathing marine species of reptiles are there? Name them (in Latin)
3
. Chelonia (turtles)
. Squamata (lizards and snakes)
. Crocodilia (crocodiles)
How many air breathing marine species of birds are there? Name in Latin
None completely aquatic but
Sphenisciformes (penguins)
How many air breathing marine mammals are there? Give names of order and sub-order that it is split into and give examples of species
. Pinnipeds
- Otariidae- furred seals
- Phocidae- ‘true’ seals
. Cetaceans- whales and dolphins
- Odontoceti- toothed whales e.g. orcas and the dolphins
- Mysticeti- baleen whales- e.g. the blue whales
What are the problems associated with returning to the sea?
. Think about how you are going to get O2)
. Issue with foraging in the sea floor (e.g. the grey whale)
What is the issue with foraging at the sea floor when you are air-breathing? Give an example
Wasting time going to the surface and down and staying at the surface to breath, which they could have been foraging
E.g. sperm whales prey is highly mobile squid, which may have gone while they were breathing (also grey whales forage this way)
What are the advantages of using air over water as a respiratory medium?
. Easy to move air compared to water
. 30 times more O2 in 1 litre of air compared to 1 litre of water- energy consuming (ok for some low metabolic rate ectotherms (e.g. sea snakes) but endotherms with high metabolic rate can’t extract enough to survive)
. Mass of medium
. Viscosity of medium
. O2 is relatively easy to access and is fairly constant in air. O2 is in high supply in the air whereas even in the most saturated of water it is much lower
. Air has a low heat conductivity and low heat capacity
Explain the mass of the medium air in relation to how much oxygen it contains in a litre and the amount of air animals have to move when breathing
. 1 litre of air contains 210ml O2
. 210ml of O2 weighs 280mg to access this an animals has to move 1190mg of air (790ml of N2 weighs 910mg)
Explain the mass of the medium water in relation to how much O2 it contains, how much water an animal needs to move to get oxygen
. 1 litre of water equilibrated with air contains 7ml of oxygen
. 7ml of air weighs 9mg to access this an animal has to move 1,000,000mg of water. So this takes a lot of energy type extract the O2 from the water
For an equivalent amount of O2 how much more water would an animal have to move?
25,000 times
What are global problems and benefits of air breathing marine species?
. Breathing air is a problem with which all marine reptile, birds and mammals have to contend
. Water is more viscous therefore more energy is needed to move through it. Increased energy due to increased drag which means that the body forms tend to be more compromised (most Cetacean have a very similar body form)
. Water is more supportive (so not contending with gravity) therefore less energy needed to support a body
. Buoyancy (pro and con)
How many species of Mysticetes (baleen whales) are there?
14
How many species of Odonotocetes (toothed whales) are there?
76
How many species of Otariidae (sea lions and fur seals) are there?
13
How many species of Odobenidae (walrus) are there?
1
How many species of Phocidae (true seals) are there?
18
How many species of Sirenia (dugongs and manatees) are there?
4
How many species of Ursidae/ Ursinae (polar bear) are there?
1
How many species of Mustelidae (sea otter) are there?
1
How many species of Cetacea (whales, dolphins and porpoises) are there?
90
How many species of Pinnipeds (seals- come together in huge numbers/ colonies to breed) are there?
36
What does amphibious mean? Give examples of species that are
Part of the life cycle takes place on shore e.g to breed, but also can be part of their day to day business e.g. grey seals
Examples: Pinnipeds, sea otter and polar bear
Give examples of fully aquatic air breathing marine orders
Cetaceans
Sirenians
Give the kingdom, phylum, sub-phylum, class, order of whales
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Sub-phylum: Vertebrata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea
How many species of whales are there?
90 (10 million animals)
Give the families (4) in the sub-order Mysticeti (baleen whales) 14 species and the number of species in each family
. Balaenidae (right whales)- 4 species
. Neobalaenidae (Pygmy right whale)- 1 species
. Balaenopteridae (roquals)- 8 species
. Eschrichtiidae (grey whales)- 1 species
Give the families (9) in the suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales) (76 species), facial and cranial asymmetry, bisonar. And the number of species in each
. Delphinidae (dolphins) 38 species
. Monodontidae (narwal and belunga)
. Phocoenidae (porpoises) 6 species
. Platanistidae (S. Asian river dolphin)*
. Pontoporiidae (Franciscana river dolphin)
. Iniidae (Amazon river dolphin)*
. Lipotidae (Baji river dolphin- extinct?)
. Phyeteridae (sperm whale)
. Kogidaee (Pygmy and dwarf sperm whale)
. Zip guides (beaked whales) 22 species
Why is there so little known about Physeteridae (sperm whale) and Ziphiidae (beaked whales)?
Occur in regions that are exceptionally deep and this makes it very hard to study because humans don’t go to where they are
Why are we still discovering new marine species?
Because it is diffuse as they are in the marine environment and they very rarely are at the surface so it is unlikely to see/ identify them
Give several new species describe recently
. Araguaia Boto-river dolphin
. Two species of beaked whale- Mesoplodon perrini and Mesoplodon peruvianus
. Australian Snubfin dolphin
. A new baleen whale- Balaenoptera omurai
. Evidence presented for distinguishing three forms (probably subspecies) of killer whale
Give examples of species hunted to extinction
. The Atlantic grey whale (1700s)
. Stellar’s sea cow (1768)
Give an example of a recently extinct species
The Baji or Yangtze River dolphin
Give examples of marine species that are seriously endangered
. The northern right whale (~300)
. The Vaquita (Phocoena sinus) (maybe 30 left)
Give examples of some populations that are seriously endangered (red-listed)
. Western Pacific gray whale
. The Baltic harbour porpoise
Describe Humback whale global abundance
. ~60,000
. Transglobal
. Population increasing (a lot of the whale species are recovering due to whaling being banned)
. Climate change and over fishing may still pose a huge impact on these animals
Despite many whale species recovering after the ban of whaling give an example of a species that is not doing so well
Northern (North Atlantic) right whale ~300
What are the morphological adaptions of general cetacean?
Constraint on the overall body shape, Hugh metabolic rate and temperature maintenance. If you can maintain that temperature, hen you can be much more efficient with faster response rates and you can optimise your biochemistry. To do that you need insulation to keep that temperature constant
General cetacean have adapted to have increased insulation- what are the positives and negatives of this?
Can optimise biochemistry
When whales beach they usually die of overheating because they cannot dissipate heat
What are general cetacean adaptions?
. Morphological adaptions- increased insulation
. Circulatory adjustments
. Counter current heat exchangers
. Adaptions for osmoregulation
. Sensory adaptions
. Diving capability (varies- is directly linked to their morphology
What are the osmoregulation adaption of general cetacean?
They take in high salt, even though they don’t drink, but need to get rid of the salt so they have adaptions in their kidneys to deal with the high salt
Why do general cetacean have sensory adaptions?
The marine environment is very different to the terrestrial environment
Cetaceans are long lived and it takes a while to become sexually mature (up to 10 years or more) why are the issues with this?
. Long lived (18-100+ years)- and the bowhead whale which is related to the right whale (another surface feeder) is thought to be over 200 years
. Relatively late sexual maturity and seasonal breeding
. Single calf each breeding event (1 per year)
. Cetaceans breeding interval= 1-4 years so, any population change will take them a long time to recover because not all calves will survive
. Calf and juvenile natural and anthropogenic mortality
. Dolphins and porpoises population growth about 1-4% per year
. Large cetaceans can be higher 1-10% (mommy whales may have returned to possibly their highest population size ever)
How do you determine the age of marine toothed mammals, how does it work?
Cut trough the teeth and count the rings from animals that have beached. One ring (growth layers)= one year because they go through times because they grow more rapidly because there is more food available and periods of ins where growth is much slower because there is less available
Baleen whales don’t have teeth so how do we age them?
Using ear plugs- so their ears are not exposed to their environment- they grow in line with the whale itself. Each dot= a different growth year
What do the Balaenidae (right whales) 4 species and Neobalaenidae (Pygmy right whale) all share?
. They are the species that feed at the surface
. They have baleen plates that are hanging down from the roof of the mouth
. Their ecology is basically to swim at the surface with I their mouth open- it is the reason for their limitation
Give the Latin names of the 8 species of Balaenopteridae (roquals)
. Balaenoptera musculus (blue whale) . B. omurai (Omura’s whale) . B. physalus (Fin whale) . B. borealis (Sei whale) . B. edeni (Brydes whale) . Megaptera novaeangliae (Humpback whale) . B. acutorostrata (common minke whale) . B. bonaerensis (Antarctic minke whale)
What do Balaenopteridae (roquals) 8 species and Eschrichtiidae (gray whale) have in common?
. Have throat- open their mouths when they are trying to engulf prey
What are the 6 species of Phocoenidae (porpoises)? Use Latin names
. Phocoena phocoena (Harbour porpoise)
. P. spinipinnis (Burmeister’s porpoise- virtually extinct)
. P. sinus (Vaquita)
. P. dioptrica (Spectacled porpoise)
. Neophocaena phocaenoides (Finless porpoise)
. Phocoenoides dalli (Dall’s porpoise)
