Seasonal and Ontogenetic Variation in Subcutaneous Adipose Of the Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus).

Seasonal and Ontogenetic Variation in Subcutaneous Adipose Of the Bowhead Whale (Balaena mysticetus).

Ball Hope C; Stavarz Madeline; Oldaker Jonathan; Usip Sharon; Londraville Richard L; George John C; Thewissen Johnannes G M; Duff Robert Joel

Anatomical record (Hoboken, N.J. : 2007)

2015

2015-08

Cetacean evolution was shaped by an extraordinary land-to-sea transition in which the ancestors of whales became fully aquatic. As part of this transition, these mammals evolved unusually thick blubber which acts as a metabolic reservoir as well as an insulator and provides buoyancy and streamlining. This study describes blubber stratification and correlates it to seasonal variation, feeding patterns, and ontogeny in an arctic-adapted mysticete, the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus). Bowheads are unique among mammals for possessing the largest known blubber stores. We found that adipocyte numbers in bowheads, like other mammals, do not vary with season or feeding pattern but that adipocyte size and structural fiber densities do vary with blubber depth.

*Biological Evolution; *Seasons; Adaptation; Adipocytes/*cytology; adipose; Age Factors; Animals; Autopsy; blubber; bowhead; Bowhead Whale/*anatomy & histology/psychology; Cell Size; Feeding Behavior; Female; Male; ontogeny; Physiological; seasonal variation; Subcutaneous Fat/*cytology

Article information provided for research and reference use only. All rights are retained by the journal listed under publisher and/or the creator(s).

1416–1423

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