Albireonids were an early branch of the delphinoid whales, with their closest living relatives being modern oceanic dolphins, narwhals and belugas, and porpoises. Known from temperate latitudes of the North Pacific Ocean between the late Miocene and the late Pliocene, about 9-2.5 million years ago, their fossil remains are very rare in coastal deposits and they seem to have primarily been offshore open ocean animals.

Albireo whistleri is the best known member of this family, represented by a near-complete skeleton from what is now Isla de Cedros in Baja California, Mexico, dating to the late Miocene between about 8 and 6 million years ago. It was a rather small dolphin, around 2.5m long (~8'2"), with a stocky body, fairly broad flippers, and skull anatomy with some convergent similarities with the modern Dall's porpoise.

Interestingly these dolphins also seem to have frequently had pathological neck vertebrae, with both Albireo whisteri and the younger species Albireo savagei from California, USA, showing unusually asymmetrical atlas bones – but on opposite sides to each other. This might be due to illness or injury earlier in life, or possibly be evidence of some sort of "handedness" with individuals preferring to perform some actions more with one side of their body than the other.

———

NixIllustration.com | Tumblr | Patreon

The constellation of Cygnus, the Swan // Ondra Vyhlídal

Click below for an annotated image and some facts about Cygnus and some of its named stars!

Okay, this is the last one. This character belongs to me and their name is Albireo :3. As you might have noticed, all the prior post hold a similar theme and these characters are some I extremely enjoy so I thought it would be interesting to draw them in a “Doomed by Narrative” style.

The Drabble Challenge by: @thedrabblecollective Day 8 Prompt: Stars Fandom: Detroit: Become Human Characters: Captain Allen, Sixty / RK800-60

---

“Would you look at that,” Allen gaped at the stars, something rare under Detroit’s light-polluted skies.

His unit was deployed a few miles out of town, only for it to be called off. Bad intel.

Sixty smirked. “The great SWAT captain is dumbfounded by the sky?”

“Not just the sky,” he said, pointing. “Deneb, Albireo.”

Sixty’s eyes followed.

“Sadr, Aljanah, Fawaris. The Northern Cross.”

The android’s LED blinked. “How will knowing asterisms help with missions?”

“It’s not protocol,” Allen grinned, “but it helps you bond with your grumpy android rookie.”

Sixty scoffed, yet quietly logged it as a core memory.

📷 (c) Klemen Vrankar

Constellation Guide, Northern Cross

POP'N MUSIC LAPISTORIA - DANCE! (RARS, ALBIREO, TAKUTO)