Snout

Abstract: Fifty-four right whale mortalities have been reported from between Florida, USA and the Canadian Maritimes from 1970 to 2002. Th irty of those animals were examined: 18 adults and juveniles, and 12 calves. Morphometric data are presented such that prediction of body weight is possible if the age, or one or more measurements are known. Calves grew approximately linearly in their first year. T otal length and fluke width increased asymptotically to a plateau with age, weight increased linearly with age, weight and snout to blowhol e distance increased exponentially with total length, whereas total length was linearly related to fluke width and flipper length. Among t he adults and juveniles examined in this study, human interaction appeared to be a major cause of mortality, where in 14/18 necropsies, traum a was a significant finding. In 10/14 of these, the cause of the trauma was presumed to be vessel collision. Entanglement in fishing ge ar accounted for the remaining four cases. Trauma was also present in 4/12 calves. In the majority of calf mortalities (8/12) the cause of d eath was not determined. Sharp ship trauma included propeller lacerations inducing multiple, deep lacerations that often incised vital organ s including the brain, spinal cord, major airways, vessels and musculature. Blunt ship trauma resulted in major internal bruising and fract ures often without any obvious external damage. In at least two cases fatal gear entanglements were extremely protracted: where the entang lements took at least 100 and 163 days respectively to be finally lethal. The sum of these findings show two major needs: (1) that exti nction avoidance management strategies focused on reducing trauma to right whales from ship collisions and fishing gear entanglement a re highly appropriate and need to be continued and; (2) that as mitigation measures continue to be introduced into shipping and fishing i ndustry practices, there is a strong effort to maximise the diagnostic quality of post-mortem examination of right whale mortalities, t o ensure an optimal understanding of resultant trends.

Abstract: Fifty-four right whale mortalities have been reported from between Florida, USA and the Canadian Maritimes from 1970 to 2002. Thirty of those animals were examined: 18 adults and juveniles, and 12 calves. Morphometric data are presented such that prediction of body weight is possible if the age, or one or more measurements are known. Calves grew approximately linearly in their first year. Total length and fluke width increased asymptotically to a plateau with age, weight increased linearly with age, weight and snout to blowhole distance increased exponentially with total length, whereas total length was linearly related to fluke width and flipper length. Among the adults and juveniles examined in this study, human interaction appeared to be a major cause of mortality, where in 14/18 necropsies, trauma was a significant finding. In 10/14 of these, the cause of the trauma was presumed to be vessel collision. Entanglement in fishing gear accounted for the remaining four cases. Trauma was also present in 4/12 calves. In the majority of calf mortalities (8/12) the cause of death was not determined. Sharp ship trauma included propeller lacerations inducing multiple, deep lacerations that often incised vital organs including the brain, spinal cord, major airways, vessels and musculature. Blunt ship trauma resulted in major internal bruising and fractures often without any obvious external damage. In at least two cases fatal gear entanglements were extremely protracted: where the entanglements took at least 100 and 163 days respectively to be finally lethal. The sum of these findings show two major needs: (1) that extinction avoidance management strategies focused on reducing trauma to right whales from ship collisions and fishing gear entanglement are highly appropriate and need to be continued and; (2) that as mitigation measures continue to be introduced into shipping and fishing industry practices, there is a strong effort to maximise the diagnostic quality of post-mortem examination of right whale mortalities, to ensure an optimal understanding of resultant trends.

Abstract: New specimens of the unusual theropod Spinosaurus cf. S. aegyptiacus from the Late Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) of Morocco reveal new information about the structure of the snout and the very large adult body size attained by the species. The external naris is retracted farther caudally on the snout than in other spinosaurids and is bordered exclusively by the maxilla and nasal. The fused nasals preserve a longitudinal, fluted crest. The size of the snout suggests that Spinosaurus may well have exceeded the maximum adult body size of other large Cretaceous theropods such as Tyrannosaurus and Giganotosaurus. The new material also supports the monophyly of the Spinosaurinae and the separation of Spinosaurus and Irritator.

Abstract: We describe a new species of Zhangixalus from southern Yunnan of China, Vietnam, and Thailand based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species had been confused with Zhangixalus smaragdinus (Blyth, 1852) in the past. Zhangixalus pachyproctus sp. nov. can be distinguished from Z. smaragdinus morphologically by the protruding vent in adult males, large thick grey reticular mottles below the white stripe on flank, more oblique snout in profile and wider head, longer snout, greater internarial distance, larger tympanum and longer hindlimb. The new species can be distinguished from other species of Zhangixalus with green dorsum by the following combination of characters: body size larger (SVL of adult males: 74.2-83.3 mm; SVL of adult female: 102.4 mm); dorsum smooth; narrow white stripes along edge of the lower jaw, body sides, outer side of limbs and above the vent; absence of brown bands on canthus rostralis, upper eyelid and supratympanic fold; webbing between fingers and toes complete except between the first two fingers; and internal single subgular vocal sac. Phylogeny based on comparison of 16S rRNA sequences suggests that the new species is the sister taxon to Z. smaragdinus and the two species differ by 7.63% in the uncorrected pairwise distance of 16S sequences.