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24 Hours: Spade-toothed Whale (Mesoplodon traversii)

Posted on Dec 22, 2007 by in Mammalthons, Marine Mammals | 4 comments

Mesoplodon traversii

Number 0081

Whale, whale, whale, what have we here? It’s a whale skull! Neil requested this spade-toothed whale, giving me its Latin name and apology. Turns out, no one’s ever seen this animal. All we know of it is what we can gather from three skull parts that have washed up over the past 130 years or so. It’s pretty amazing that there are still so many mammals—big ones!—that we’ve never seen, even though we think we’ve seen it all and know it all.

So Neil, I’m sorry your mammal has no skin, but I think this drawing is in the spirit of your request.

If you want to learn more about this mysterious whale, you can start with Wikipedia.

4 Comments

  1. Jennifer, I must say – drawing that mammal shows your remarkable artistic skull!

  2. Now now, let’s not get a head of ourselves…

  3. Perfect!

  4. I’m so relieved, Neil! I was worried you’d be disappointed. I actually tried to draw the whole whale but for whatever reason it wasn’t working at that time.

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