Fernandina and Isabela islands
Today was another gift to our life filled with great experiences. There are few places where we can enjoy the company of several species of cetaceans, and even better, to get in the water without wetsuit (as I did last Sunday to film dolphins underwater) and have the unique experience of seeing these creatures in their real habitat. Today we briefly spotted a humpback whale and bottle-nosed dolphins near Roca Redonda, and a couple of Bryde’s whales on our way to Fernandina.
Cetaceans evolved from the same ancestral mammal that gave rise to modern even-toed ungulates (deer, camels, pigs, cows and hippos). The wide variety of habitats in which they live and their diverse systems of structural and social organization are testimony to a remarkably complete secondary adaptation to the aquatic environment.
Dolphins are in the Suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales), which comprise 68 living species of whales, porpoises and dolphins, which have teeth in their jaws, but the family Delphinidae contains over 30 species of dolphins.
The bottle-nosed dolphin is one of the two species of cetacean that are the most ecologically adaptable and truly cosmopolitan: they occur from the higher latitudes all the way to the tropics; in stable coastal groups or in ocean-roaming groups.
Dolphins are placed in the Order Cetacea (from the Greek ketos and the Latin cetus both meaning a large marine creature or sea monster). They exhibit the most profound and marvelous anatomical and physiological adaptations for surviving and thriving in a medium that is essentially hostile to mammalian life. Among the most important adaptations that we can talk about is the skin, which contains lubricants which may help to reduce friction. Superficial skin cells exude tiny oil droplets and the outer layer of skin is shed up to 12 times a day. Dolphins also have an effective infrared vision, which is very well adapted to both aquatic and aerial environments.
Today was another gift to our life filled with great experiences. There are few places where we can enjoy the company of several species of cetaceans, and even better, to get in the water without wetsuit (as I did last Sunday to film dolphins underwater) and have the unique experience of seeing these creatures in their real habitat. Today we briefly spotted a humpback whale and bottle-nosed dolphins near Roca Redonda, and a couple of Bryde’s whales on our way to Fernandina.
Cetaceans evolved from the same ancestral mammal that gave rise to modern even-toed ungulates (deer, camels, pigs, cows and hippos). The wide variety of habitats in which they live and their diverse systems of structural and social organization are testimony to a remarkably complete secondary adaptation to the aquatic environment.
Dolphins are in the Suborder Odontoceti (toothed whales), which comprise 68 living species of whales, porpoises and dolphins, which have teeth in their jaws, but the family Delphinidae contains over 30 species of dolphins.
The bottle-nosed dolphin is one of the two species of cetacean that are the most ecologically adaptable and truly cosmopolitan: they occur from the higher latitudes all the way to the tropics; in stable coastal groups or in ocean-roaming groups.
Dolphins are placed in the Order Cetacea (from the Greek ketos and the Latin cetus both meaning a large marine creature or sea monster). They exhibit the most profound and marvelous anatomical and physiological adaptations for surviving and thriving in a medium that is essentially hostile to mammalian life. Among the most important adaptations that we can talk about is the skin, which contains lubricants which may help to reduce friction. Superficial skin cells exude tiny oil droplets and the outer layer of skin is shed up to 12 times a day. Dolphins also have an effective infrared vision, which is very well adapted to both aquatic and aerial environments.
