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9781560989554

Whales and Dolphins in Question : The Smithsonian Answer Book

by ;
  • ISBN13:

    9781560989554

  • ISBN10:

    1560989556

  • Format: Hardcover
  • Copyright: 2002-02-01
  • Publisher: Harpercollins
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List Price: $55.00

Summary

This comprehensive book is a collective response to thousands of letters and phone calls received annually by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. Students, teachers, and scientists all have amazingly varied questions about whales and dolphins, and the most revealing inquiries are presented here with detailed answers.

The collaborators on this book are ideally qualified: Smithsonian scientist James Mead is one of the world's leading whale scholars; Joy Gold researches questions on vertebrate zoology for the museum; and Flip Nicklin is a renowned cetacean photographer. They present the questions, definitive answers, and related full-color photographs in a nontraditional format that encourages browsing. How many fingers do whales have? Why do whales strand on beaches? Do dolphins protect humans from sharks? What does DNA reveal about the ancestry of cetaceans? The answers are given clearly, in both scientific and common language.

Certain to become a standard reference, Whales and Dolphins in Question is fourth in the Smithsonian Answer Book S

Table of Contents

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Introduction xv
Whale and Dolphin Facts
1(94)
What Are Whales?
1(1)
What Are Cetaceans?
1(1)
What Are the Differences between Baleen and Toothed Whales?
2(1)
What Are the Differences among Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises?
3(1)
What Are the Meanings of Cetacean Names?
4(1)
What Are Rorquals?
5(1)
What Is the Story of the Minke Whale?
5(1)
What Are Beaked Whales?
5(1)
What Is a Blackfish?
6(1)
How Many Species of Whales Exist Today?
7(1)
How Are Whales Like Other Mammals?
7(1)
How Are Whales Different from Terrestrial Mammals?
8(2)
How Does the Genetics of Whales Compare with That of Other Mammals?
10(1)
What Does the DNA Reveal about the Ancestry of Cetaceans?
10(1)
Where Do Whales and Dolphins Live?
11(1)
Do All Whales Migrate?
12(1)
Why Do Whales Migrate?
12(1)
Where and When Do Whales Migrate?
13(1)
How Far Do Whales Travel? What Are Their Specific Routes?
14(1)
What Are the Hazards of Whale Migration?
14(1)
Do Whales Feed When Migrating?
15(1)
How Do Scientists Track Whales and Dolphins?
15(2)
How Many Whales Are There?
17(4)
When Did People Begin to Study Whale Anatomy?
21(1)
How Large Are Whales?
22(1)
How Are Whales and Dolphins Adapted for Life in the Water?
22(2)
What Is the Purpose of the Throat Grooves?
24(1)
What Is the Texture of Cetacean Skin?
24(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Have Hands and Feet?
25(2)
How Many Fingers Do Whales Have?
27(1)
Why Do Some Cetaceans Have a Dorsal Fin?
27(1)
Why Do Some Cetaceans Lack a Dorsal Fin?
27(1)
How Many Bones Do Whales and Dolphins Have?
28(1)
Why Do Whale Skulls Differ from Those of Other Mammals?
29(1)
How Many Teeth Do Whales Have?
30(1)
Which Whales Have Tusks?
30(1)
What Is Baleen?
31(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Have Specialized Hearts?
32(1)
What Kind of Blood Vessels Do Whales and Dolphins Have?
33(1)
How Do Whale and Dolphin Lungs Differ from Human Lungs?
33(1)
What Is Blubber?
34(1)
How Large Are Newborn Whales and Dolphins?
35(1)
What Do Newborn Whales and Dolphins Look Like?
36(1)
How Old Do Whales Get?
36(1)
How Do We Estimate the Age of a Whale?
37(1)
How Does the Life History of Whales and Dolphins Compare with That of Humans?
38(1)
How Long Do Whales and Dolphins Live in Captivity?
38(1)
How Well Do Whales and Dolphins See?
39(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Detect Color?
39(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins See as Well in the Air as in the Water?
40(1)
What Color Are Cetaceans' Eyes?
41(1)
How Well Do Whales and Dolphins Hear?
41(1)
What Do Whales and Dolphins Hear?
41(1)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Hear in Water?
42(1)
What Is the Effect of Underwater Sounds on Whales?
42(1)
Do Dolphins Use Their Jaws in Hearing?
43(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Taste Their Food?
43(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Have a Sense of Smell?
44(1)
Do Whales Feel Pain?
44(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Have a Sense of Touch?
44(1)
Do Whales Have a Built-in Compass?
44(1)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Swim?
45(1)
How Do We Determine What Whales Are Doing Underwater?
45(1)
How Fast Do Whales and Dolphins Swim?
46(1)
What Is Sounding?
46(1)
What Is Breaching?
47(1)
How Deep Can Whales and Dolphins Dive?
47(2)
Do Whales and Dolphins Get the ``Bends''?
49(1)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Remain Buoyant?
50(1)
What Is Cetaceans' Body Temperature and How Do They Maintain It?
50(1)
How Fast Does a Whale's Heart Beat?
51(1)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Breathe?
51(1)
What Is a Blow?
52(1)
Can Whale Species Be Identified by Their Blows?
52(2)
How Often Do Cetaceans Breathe?
54(1)
How Do Whales Keep from Drowning?
54(1)
How Do Whales Digest Their Food?
54(1)
What Is Ambergris?
55(1)
What Are the Diseases Common to Whales?
56(1)
What Are the Pests and Parasites That Infest Cetaceans?
56(2)
Do Whales Cry?
58(1)
How Smart Are Whales?
59(1)
How Do Whales Reproduce?
60(2)
When Are Whales Sexually Mature?
62(1)
Do Whales Court?
62(1)
How Does Mating Occur?
63(1)
Do Whales Ever Have Twins?
64(1)
Are Newborn Whales Relatively Larger Than Other Newborn Mammals?
64(1)
How Long Is the Gestation Period of Cetaceans?
65(1)
How Do Male and Female Cetaceans Recognize One Another?
65(2)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Care for Their Young?
67(1)
How Does Lactation Take Place in Cetaceans?
67(1)
Why Do Dolphins and Porpoises Seem to Smile?
68(1)
What Is Spy Hopping?
69(1)
What Is Lobtailing?
69(1)
What Do Whales Eat?
69(3)
What Are Krill and Brit?
72(1)
How Do Cetaceans Catch and Eat Their Prey?
73(2)
How Much Do Whales Consume?
75(2)
Do Whales and Dolphins Drink Water?
77(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Play?
77(1)
Which Whales Exhibit ``Friendly'' Behavior?
77(2)
Do Whales and Dolphins Sleep?
79(1)
Which Whales Form Herds?
79(2)
Do Cetaceans Have Enemies?
81(1)
How Do Whales Protect Themselves?
82(1)
Do Whales Sink Ships?
82(1)
Do Whales Fight?
83(1)
How and Why Do Narwhals Use Their Tusks?
84(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Have Voices?
85(1)
How Do Whales and Dolphins Make Sounds?
86(1)
How Do Cetaceans Use Sonar?
87(1)
Why Do Some Whales Sing?
87(1)
Do Whales and Dolphins Communicate with One Another?
88(1)
Do Cetaceans Communicate by Anything except Sound?
89(1)
Can the Larger Whales Be Trained?
89(1)
What Can Be Done with a Sick Whale?
90(1)
Why Do Whales Strand?
91(1)
What Should Be Done When a Cetacean Stranding Occurs?
92(3)
Whale Evolution and Diversity
95(48)
What Are the Earliest Whale Fossils?
95(1)
When Did the First Whales Live?
96(1)
Were the Fossil Whales Really Different from Modern Whales?
96(1)
What Changes the Number of Whale Species?
97(46)
Baleen Whales (Suborder Mysticeti)
98(1)
Right Whales (Family Balaenidae)
98(2)
Pygmy Right Whale (Family Neobalaenidae)
100(2)
Gray Whale (Family Eschrichtiidae)
102(5)
Rorquals and the Humpback Whale (Family Balaenopteridae)
107(12)
Toothed Whales (Suborder Odontoceti)
119(1)
Sperm Whales (Family Physeteridae)
119(4)
White Whales (Family Monodontidae)
123(5)
Beaked Whales (Family Ziphiidae)
128(6)
Oceanic Dolphins (Family Delphinidae)
134(6)
River Dolphins (Family Platanistidae)
140(3)
Whales and Humans
143(26)
Do Whales Attack People?
143(1)
Do Dolphins Protect Humans from Sharks?
144(1)
Do Dolphins Save People from Drowning?
144(1)
When Did Whaling Begin?
144(1)
What Is Modern Whaling?
145(1)
What Tools Have Been Used in Whaling?
146(1)
What Is Flensing?
147(1)
What Are the Products of Whaling?
147(1)
What Is Ivory?
148(1)
Can We Identify the Specific Varieties of Ivory?
148(2)
What Whales Have Ivory?
150(1)
What Is Spermaceti?
150(1)
Why Did Whaling Decline?
151(1)
When Did Whaling Decline?
152(1)
What about Dolphin Fisheries?
152(1)
Are Whales and Dolphins Killed Accidentally?
152(2)
How Are Cetaceans Protected?
154(5)
What Is the IWC?
159(1)
What Is Whale Watching?
159(1)
How Have Whales Figured in Folktales and the Arts?
160(5)
Is the Story of Jonah and the Whale True?
165(1)
What Is Left to Learn about Cetaceans?
166(1)
What Is the Prognosis for Whales and Dolphins?
167(1)
How Can Someone Become a Whale Expert?
167(2)
Appendix 1. General Classification of Mammals and Specific Classification of Whales and Dolphins 169(4)
Appendix 2. Careers in Marine Mammal Science 173(6)
Appendix 3. Sources of Additional Information on Cetaceans 179(5)
Glossary 184(5)
References 189(7)
Taxonomic Index 196(2)
Subject Index 198

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