Oil adsorption does not structurally or functionally alter whale baleen.

ABSTRACT: Mysticete whales filter small prey from seawater using baleen, a unique keratinous oral tissue that grows from the palate, from which it hangs in hundreds of serial plates. Laboratory experiments testing effects of oils on material strength and flexibility, particle capture and tissue architecture of baleen from four mysticete species (bowhead, Balaena mysticetus; North Atlantic right, Eubalaena glacialis; fin, Balaenoptera physalus; humpback, Megaptera novaeangliae) indicate that baleen is hydrophilic and oleophobic, shedding rather than adsorbing oil. Oils of different weights and viscosities were tested, including six petroleum-based oils and two fish or plankton oils of common whale prey. No notable differences were found by oil type or whale species. Baleen

SUBMITTER: Werth AJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6549998 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature