The sperm whale skull amphitheatre cradles an enormous two-tonne spermaceti organ. The amphitheatre separates this organ from the cranium and the cervical vertebrae that lie in close proximity to the base of the skull. Here, we elucidate that this skull amphitheatre is an elastic, flexible, triple-layered structure with mechanical properties that are conjointly guided by bone histology and the characteristics of pore space. We contend that the amphitheatre will flex elastically to equilibrate forces transmitted via the spermaceti organ that arise through diving. We find that collisions from sperm whale aggression do not cause the amphitheatre to bend, but rather localise stress to the base of the amphitheatre on its anterior face. We consider, therefore, that the uniquely thin and extended construction of the amphitheatre, has relevance as an energy absorptive structure in diving.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.zool.2015.12.001 | DOI Listing |
J Hist Behav Sci
January 2025
Department of Psychology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA.
Although naturalists have devoted attention to cetaceans since Antiquity, it was only in the 19th century that cetology underwent a true explosion. Three key cetological works of this period are The Natural History of the Sperm Whale (1839) by Thomas Beale, The Whaleman's Adventures in the Southern Ocean (1850) by Henry Cheever and The Seals and Whales of the British Seas (1881) by Thomas Southwell. Importantly, these three works did not only represent fundamental compendia of scientific knowledge of cetaceans, but also had a crucial role in awakening a cetacean protection consciousness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, United States.
The remarkable efficiency with which enzymes catalyze small-molecule reactions has driven their widespread application in organic chemistry. Here, we employ automated fast-flow solid-phase synthesis to access catalytically active full-length enzymes without restrictions on the number and structure of noncanonical amino acids incorporated. We demonstrate the total syntheses of iron-dependent myoglobin (BsMb) and sperm whale myoglobin (SwMb).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnat Rec (Hoboken)
January 2025
Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA.
The pygmy sperm whale (Kogia breviceps) possesses an exocrine gland associated with its false gill slit pigmentation pattern. The cervical gill slit gland is a compound tubuloalveolar gland that produces a holocrine secretion and displays maturational changes in size and secretory histology. While the morphology of the cervical gill slit gland has been described in detail, to date, the chemical composition of its secretion remains uncharacterized.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
Department of Information Technology Management, Faculty of Management Technology and Information System, Port Said University, Port Said, 42526, Egypt.
The Internet of Things (IoTs) has revolutionized cities, enabling them to become smarter. IoTs play an important role in monitoring the traffic cameras, roads, smart farming, connected vehicles, air quality, water level, humidity, and carbon dioxide pollution levels in city buildings. One of the major challenges of smart cities is the cyber threat to sensitive data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Acoust Soc Am
December 2024
Sea Mammal Research Unit, School of Biology, University of St Andrews, KY16 9TH, St Andrews, United Kingdom.
Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is an increasingly popular tool to study vocalising species. The amount of data generated by PAM studies calls for robust automatic classifiers. Deep learning (DL) techniques have been proven effective in identifying acoustic signals in challenging datasets, but due to their black-box nature their underlying biases are hard to quantify.
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