#ziphiidae

Flandriacetus gijseni was an early beaked whale that lived during the late Miocene, about 8 million years ago, in nearshore marine waters covering what is now the Netherlands.

Around 4m long (~13'), it had a long snout lined with small sharp teeth – unlike modern beaked whales which are mostly toothless – and much like its close relative Messapicetus it probably led a more dolphin-like lifestyle feeding on small fish near the surface.

It's currently the youngest known example of a long-snouted stem beaked whale, a holdover from a time when these cetaceans were much more ecologically diverse than they are today.

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Cuvier's beaked whale Ziphius cavirostris

Shepherd's Beaked Whale Tasmacetus shepherdi

It has a circumpolar distribution in southern hemisphere. The species is seldom seen because of its deep, offshore distribution in waters where sighting conditions can be difficult.

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.

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.  

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.

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