#ziphiidae

[alphynix]

Ninoziphius platyrostris was an early beaked whale that lived during the late Miocene (~6 million years ago) in warm coastal waters covering what is now southwestern Peru. Its ancestors appear to have branched off from all other beaked whales very early in the group's history, indicating a "ghost lineage" going back to at least 17 million years ago.

About 4.4m long (~14'5"), it was less specialized for suction feeding and deep diving than modern beaked whales. Also unlike most modern species its jaws were lined with numerous interlocking teeth, with heavy wear suggesting it may have hunted close to the seafloor, where disturbed sand and grit would have regularly ended up in its mouth along with its prey and steadily ground down its teeth during its lifetime.

Males had a pair of stout tusks at the tip of their upward-curving lower jaw, with possibly a second smaller set of tusks behind them, which were probably used for fighting each other like in modern beaked whales.

Its shallow water habitat and more abrasive diet suggest Ninoziphius' lifestyle was much more like modern dolphins than modern beaked whales, and other early beaked whales like Messapicetus similarly seem to have occupied dolphin-like ecological niches.

These dolphin-like forms disappeared around the same time that true dolphins began to diversify, possibly struggling to compete for the same food sources, while other beaked whales that had begun to specialize for deep sea diving survived and thrived. Interestingly this ecological shift seems to have happened twice, in two separate beaked whale lineages – although only one of them still survives today – with bizarre bony "internal antlers" even independently evolving in both groups.

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NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

References:

Bianucci, Giovanni, et al. "New beaked whales from the late Miocene of Peru and evidence for convergent evolution in stem and crown Ziphiidae (Cetacea, Odontoceti)." PeerJ 4 (2016): e2479. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2479

Bianucci, Giovanni, et al. A new Late Miocene beaked whale (Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the Pisco Formation, and a revised age for the fossil Ziphiidae of Peru. Bollettino della Societa Paleontologica Italiana 63.1 (2024): 21-43. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380459192_A_new_Late_Miocene_beaked_whale_Cetacea_Odontoceti_from_the_Pisco_Formation_and_a_revised_age_for_the_fossil_Ziphiidae_of_Peru

Gol'din, Pavel. "‘Antlers inside’: are the skull structures of beaked whales (Cetacea: Ziphiidae) used for echoic imaging and visual display?." Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 113.2 (2014): 510-515. https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12337

Lambert, Olivier, Christian De Muizon, and Giovanni Bianucci. "The most basal beaked whale Ninoziphius platyrostris Muizon, 1983: clues on the evolutionary history of the family Ziphiidae (Cetacea: Odontoceti)." Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 167.4 (2013): 569-598. https://doi.org/10.1111/zoj.12018

Lambert, Olivier, et al. "No deep diving: evidence of predation on epipelagic fish for a stem beaked whale from the Late Miocene of Peru." Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282.1815 (2015): 20151530. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2015.1530

[inatungulates]

Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus

With northern fulmar Fulmarus glacialis

Observed by rouj, CC BY-NC

The ghostly pale appearance of this bottlenose whale is an aberration from the more typical brownish coloration - probably a result of a tyrosinase deficiency, which affects the ability to synthesize melanin.

[drhoz]

#2487 - Mesoplodon layardii - Strap-toothed Beaked Whale

Named after the bizarre teeth, and Edgar Leopold Layard, the curator of the South African Museum, who sent drawings of a skull to the British taxonomist John Edward Gray, who described the species in 1865.

Largest of the Mesoplodons, growing to 6.2m in length, despite the fact that the strap-like tusks stop them opening their jaws more than 3cm. At least the females aren't so encumbered. It seems certain the teeth are used in male-male combat, but the only actual damage comes from a small spike on the tip of the teeth.

Sporadic strandings and sightings suggest the whale is widespread in the Southern Ocean, although one individual did show up in Myanmar in 2011.

Mostly a squid-feeder, caught by suction feeding. Hunted by orca, and harmed by sonar.

Whanganui Regional Museum, New Zealand

[rafallerart]

I haven’t done any anatomy stuff in a long time, so I decided to challenge myself with a creature design project combining eagle and whale anatomy.  The result is what I call a wheagle - not the greatest name, but I started calling it that way back at the beginning of this project and it kind of stuck lol.  

Since I’m still pretty rusty with anatomy, I gave this animal a fairly conservative and recognizable avian body - for the most part.  The head, talons and tail are where the whale anatomy comes into play.  The elongated skull displays telescoping (a reduced distance between the maxilla and occipital), resulting in dorsally located, blowhole-like nostrils.  There is also a melon organ (pictured in the muscle study), a mass of tissue on the dorsal snout that aids in echolocation.  The tusks were inspired by beaked whales, and are only found in the male animal.  All in all the skull components are more mammalian than avian, despite the eagle-like beak and eyes.    

The long, muscular tail was likewise inspired by cetacean muscle/locomotion, but ends in a pygostyle/tail fan that functions the same as in birds.  There are five talons instead of four, but the outer fifth talon is basically vestigial - I only added it as a nod to the five “fingers” within whale flippers.  

The wheagle is a fairly large piscivorous animal native to the South Pole.  It feeds mainly on deep sea icefish, which it hunts using echolocation.  Color scheme is inspired by African fish eagles.  I’ll have some more studies of this creature’s anatomy to share later on; I definitely enjoyed getting back into animal anatomy and creature design!   

[themculibrary]

heyyy i was wondering of you have any wolverine fic recs or if you do those. if not its cool.

just fyi because wolverine is x-men we won't be posting wolverine fics but i can rec you deadpool x wolverine as that movie is marvel:

All I Want For Christmas is You (Deadpool Edition) (ao3) - jenniferlawrencelover logan/wade E, 52k

Summary: Wade never thought he would be engaged again.

And he wasn't.

Yet.

Sunshine and Whiskey (ao3) - that_one_dead_author logan/wade E, 40k

Summary: “Oho, there’s number two-oh-seven.” Wade laughs and Logan already knows he’s grinning beneath his cowl. “That fight really got ya goin’ huh?”

Logan hated the way he could feel his cheeks heat up. He snarled, “shut the fuck up, Red.” There was a spray of warm blood against Logan’s knuckles, a breathy groan from Wade sending a shiver down the older man’s spine.

Wade glanced out of a broken window to his right. “Isn’t he cute?” He asked an invisible audience. Logan rewarded him with another stab.

Wade’s attention turned back to Logan, gloved hands grabbing his hips and giving an experimental roll of his hips. Logan’s breath hitched, and Wade had the passing thought that he wanted to swallow the sound.

the bucket list (ao3) - mikaminato logan/wade E, 33k

Summary: Wade loses his mutation and his cancer returns. With only a little time left, he decides to create a bucket list and make the most of his final moments. Together with Logan, he tries to check off every item on the list.

That is, until Logan decides he's not ready to say goodbye just yet.

we got love sure enough (ao3) - ziphiidae logan/wade M, 30k

Summary: There’s something about the mundane that wrestles with Logan’s mind far more than violence ever has. He’s already proven to himself that he can be a hero. Now it’s time to prove he can once again be someone worthy of trust on a far more personal level. ___

Or, Logan and Wade's bumpy road to domesticity.

[tt-squid]

vote for the mysticeti whales here!

[worstwolvie]

we got love sure enough by ziphiidae

where soul meets body by Edgebug

So Much For True Love by nbfutureboy

choked up, face down, burnt out (slow down, sit down, it’s new) by Chaos_and_Sparkles

some poolverine fics i've enjoyed recently <3 please make sure to read the tags!

tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow by signifier

Blood, Dirt, Love (Stop) by por_queeee

electrochemistry by Edgebug

Newton's Third Law by capitalismwasamistake

Body Count by cyclogenesis (addictedkitten)

hold me like a grudge by NotesAppWitch [series]

[namu-the-orca]

A bunch of beaked whales

I did mention I got to paint a lot of beaked whales, right? ;) After the bottlenose whales here are, well, the others. I thought it was nice to put them all together, really makes you appreciate the wonderful diversity within this big family (and it saves you from ‘a beaked whale a day’ for the next 1.5 weeks). There’s too many to all discuss individually but I have some favourites:

Shepherd’s beaked whale was a joy to paint as they are one of my favourites. Their markings are so beautiful, and they are also unique in being the only beaked whale to have a full set of teeth. For very long their colour pattern was unknown (and oft presumed to have this streaky pattern) until in 2006(!) their real colouration was formally described. They are a beautiful, elegant and unique looking species.

Sowerby’s beaked whale provided a similar ‘aha’ erlebnis for me. Often illustrated as a medium gray throughout (which is certainly fitting for the females) some interesting photographs of adult males showed a rather distinctive light blaze between their blowhole and dorsal fin. In some males it was very subtle, but others had almost as much contrast as a Layard’s beaked whale - I chose to illustrate something in the middle. Very interesting and something I hope will be the subject of further study. Males and females also have funny white lips.

Ramari’s beaked whale can’t be overlooked as it is the youngest member of the family: only described three months ago, in October 2021. Previously known as the southern form of the True’s beaked whale, analysis proved they were a species all of their own. Very happy to have painted this one too, as the mysterious southern True’s with their shining white peduncles always intrigued me.

And lastly, I can’t not mention Blainville’s beaked whale because take a closer look at that snout. Any whale whose mouth somehow ends up above their eyes is worthy of an extra look I think. And the Layard’s beaked whale because they have always been my number 1 favourite beaker.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

The Beautiful Cuvier’s Beak-nosed Whale

Requested by @swordhare

Don’t be fooled by its appearence; that’s no dolphin! It’s the Cuvier’s Beak-nosed Whale (Ziphius cavirostris), the most common of the beaked whale famile Ziphiidae. The Cuvier’s Beak-nosed Whale, also known as the goose-beaked whale, can be found in every ocean, although they are seldom seen. This is because they prefer deep waters, often diving below 1000m, and because beaked whales as a whole are shy creatures who retreat from human contact.

Z. cavirostris has become somewhat of a model for beaked whales, given that they are the most populus species and thus easier to study, despite their elusive nature. Goose-beaked whales generally travel in pods of about 15 individuals, although males sometimes travel alone. They are a deep-sea species and perhaps the deepest diving mammal on the planet; individuals have been recorded at depths of almost 3,000m and staying underwater for almost 4 hours at a time.

At such depths, Cuvier’s beak-nosed whales hunt squid, deep-sea fish, crabs and starfish. Like dolphins, they use echolocation to find their prey and communicate with each other, emitting a wide range of whistles, clicks, and groans. This is particularly useful in the deep sea where the absence of light limits the use of vision.

Little is known about the reproductive habits of beaked whales, including Z. cavirostris. They seem to mate and calf year-round, although where and how is a mystery. The average lifespan is 35 years, and predators may include sharks and orcas as evidenced by the white scars characteristic of older individuals.

In addition to being one of the more elusive whale species, the goose-beaked whale is also one of the smallest. They usually range from 5-7m long and weigh about 3000kg. One of the features that most easily distinguishes the Cuvier’s beaked-nose whale from dolphins and porpoises is their teeth. Unlike their look-alike cousins, this species only has two, which emerge in the form of tusks in males. Occasionally vestigial teeth will break through the gums, but they’re not considered useful in any meaningful way.

Conservation stuatus: This species is considered Least Concern by the IUCN. They can be caught in fishing nets as by-catch or by whalers, although these numbers are low enough to be disregarded. A larger threat is that of sonar, which has been known to drive large numbers of these whales to beach themselves and die of exposure or decompression sickness.

Photos

Todd Pusser

Andrew J. Read

M. Rosso

[tehkusogaki]

Not a single representative of the family Ziphiidae? Shame!

It's the second largest cetacean family after dolphins.

Cuvier's beaked whale has dives recorded at depths of nearly 3,000 meters and holding their breath for over 3 hours.

Also, look at these guys:

Don't they remind you of ancient whales?

I look at these guys and I can easily see a connection to like dorudon or basilosaurids.

i have received the blessing (can make polls) so i ask again...

can't list em all, so poll options are based on responses when i asked this before here & on instagram, + some personal favs

[inatungulates]

Northern bottlenose whale Hyperoodon ampullatus

Observed by anne168, CC BY-NC

[rafallerart]

Some more drawings of my wheagle beastie.  Sketches of the head and skull from different angles, and studies of the tail/pygostyle anatomy.  Someday I’d like to do a full dorsal reference of the animal (in addition to many other studies and illustrations!) but this tail ref will have to do for right now.   

[theradioghost]

@just-kent-ing-around

Hi sorry I want to know about the secret whales!??!!? 🥺 WHAT DO YOH MEAN THERES 24 SPECIES?????!

hear that? that's the sound of my final excuse DETONATING

(disclaimer i am not an expert i encourage you to research this yourselves if you find it interesting. pls don't blow up another of my amateur science posts and leave me suffering from notes years later knowing it is still spreading accidental misinformation)

this post is. long. a whale of a post. here is your courtesy readmore. (also i have added embedded alt text IDs to the images in this post but I am unsure how that interacts with readmores so if that is a problem for anyone please let me know)

whales are divided into two groups: the mysticeti or baleen whales, and the odotoceti or toothed whales. the difference between them is, and this may be complicated: baleen whales have baleen and toothed whales have teeth.

so let's dial in on the toothed whales. first we have the Physeteridae. in the modern day this consists only of the sperm whale which is a terrifying animal in its own right (fun fact: another difference between the two whale types are that toothed whales are the ones that echolocate and in theory sperm whale echolocation could be loud enough to kill humans at close range) but my passion for paleontology burdens me with the knowledge that they are simply the last of a long line of very large very carnivorous animals which, to be clear, I adore every single one of. there is also Kogiidae, which is the pygmy sperm whale and dwarf sperm whale, irrelevant to this discussion but very cute.

now, just about everything else in the odontoceti is what we would call a dolphin or porpoise, from orcas to freshwater river dolphins, making up several other groups. HOWEVER. there is one final group of toothed whales. and it is what i call:

the secret whales,

ZIPHIIDAE.

there are at least 24 species of ziphiid whales, aka the beaked whales. this is one third of toothed whales and a quarter of all whale species. i say at least because we just don't fucking know. they're WHALES and we DON'T KNOW.

here's a little tangent: have you ever seen a beluga in person? i don't know that most people understand quite how large belugas are until they see one. belugas are five feet long when they are BORN. as adults they are between 12 and 18 feet long. I can say from experience that it is also hard to understand how big that feels except in person. they are not dolphin sized. neither are ziphiid whales.

CC 2.0, image by Chris Huh

Cuvier's beaked whale here is one of the more common and well known species.

here's another tangent: if you look at lists of newly described species of land animals, you may notice that it has been quite a while since there's been any really new ones that were particularly big. sometimes we realize that what we thought was one species was actually more than one -- for example, the tapanuli orangutan -- but truly new large land animals? you pretty much have to go into the 20th century for any of that. incidentally, here's a saola. it's an incredibly rare, incredibly shy bovid that lives in an isolated region of Vietnam and is probably one of the last large land mammals to become known to global science.

CC 2.0, photo by Bill Robichaud

no one has photographed a saola since 2013 :(

contrary to this, it's pretty well known that we know jack shit about what's in the oceans. there's a lot of stuff in there and we haven't seen most of it. but WHALES? not fish, not squid, not weird squibbly stuff way down in the dark, but WHOLE ENTIRE WHALES?

i call beaked whales "secret whales" for two reasons. one, popular culture is pretty much entirely unaware of their existence. two, even if we all knew that ziphiid whales existed, there's not ... that much more that we even know about them for the most part? like, we can make some general assumptions, especially based on the two or three species that are more common and well known relative to the rest of the group. these facts include that they are very cryptic (shy and avoidant of humans; this is one of my favorite jargon words), maybe live in small groups or alone, they spend their lives in the open ocean, and they eat squids and other cephalopods that they catch by deep diving.

and the thing is, these guys are so weird!!!! only the males have teeth and they use them for jousting so almost all adult males are coated in scars! pretty much the only images of any of them are blurry pictures of their backs barely above the water, paintings/art, and pictures of bones! almost everything we know about them we know from dead ones found on beaches! the cuvier's beaked whale dives deeper and longer than any other mammal. three kilometers deep. 1.8 miles. four hours on one breath.

when i say there are 24 species that's absolutely an estimate. we keep finding new ones. the seven-meter-long Sato's beaked whale or karasu was described in 2019 and had its first definite confirmed sighting last year. in late 2020 some scientists near Mexico thought they'd made the first ever live sighting of a Perrin's beaked whale and then realized that no, this was a WHOLE OTHER NEW BEAKED WHALE. before 2012 there had been exactly three specimens found of the spade-toothed beaked whale, two skulls and a jawbone, meaning no one knew what they looked like and no one immediately realized that a pair which had beached in New Zealand were a totally unique discovery. please note that this 2012 news article says that there are 21 species of beaked whale (it also contains a pic of the deceased whale so click at your own discretion).

anyway, my favorite species of beaked whale is the strap-toothed whale, because I believe they are the most what the fuck of whales. here is a picture of a male strap-toothed whale skull.

CC 4.0, photo by TexaSim.

yes, the teeth keep them from fully opening their mouths. no, that doesn't seem to cause them problems; beaked whales seemingly use suction feeding, so these boys can just slurp up the squid just fine. those spikes on the tips of the teeth are so they can still use them to scratch the hell out of one another.

unfortunately, while it's nearly impossible to tell the population sizes of any of these whales, chemical pollution and oceanic noise pollution seem to be real dangers to them, as well as deep sea fishing and whaling in east asia. one major reason i share these whales with unsuspecting passers-by every chance I get is that if no one knows they exist, no one is trying to protect them.

anyway. now you're burdened with the Forbidden Whale Knowledge. i hope it has added a little bit of wonder to your world.

as a bonus, here is a picture of a True's beaked whale that is one of the rare images to show what these animals really look like in full.

CC 4.0, photo by Roland Edler (and my eternal gratitude to him and his coauthors for making this photo free to use)

someday i'll run out of excuses not to talk about the secret whales and you'll all descend into the same mental spiral that I do every day of my life

[wonder-rooms]

Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, Vol XII, Part VIII, (1889)