#beaked whale
here’s me
Hyperoodon ampullatus
What strange creatures. I couldn’t find any photographs of a baby bottlenose whale, so this is my artist interpretation. Genuinely want to see an actual photograph of a newly-born bottlenose whale tho
What a wonderful piece, I love those colours. Gives a real mystical feel to it.. this should be in a book or something ♥ As for the baby bottlenose whale - there are pictures!
This is what a fresh newborn looks like (photos © Vicki Thayes)
Note that there’s some discoloration due to post-mortem darkening. Here’s a cute little live baby, swimming with mom! You can really see how much more starkly marked they are than the adults, especially with their cute creamy melons (photo © Sascha Hooker)
When they get a bit older they turn to the ‘chubby baby’ phase; the neonate twofold colour pattern fades in favour of a more adult-looking plain brownish grey (photo © Gudmann on Flickr)
Note though that while they are still babies, they are already 5 metres (16.5 ft) long and weigh some two thousand kilos (4400 pounds). These guys are HUGE.
Again, thanks y’all for the support in my previous Mermay batches!
Part 1
Part 2
This week, I wanted to explore the various forms of sexual dimorphism in Merfolk, ALSO inspired by real life Biology! From the massive size of differences between male and female Blanket octopus and Angler fish to the almost non existent size difference in Oarfish and Beaked Whales!
It was also neat to explore various cultures from outside of Kara’s (The Great White from Part 1) town, for example the Narwhal and Salmon folk are northern adjacent nomadic tribes.
And unlike their IRL animals, even after pairing up or having kids, these Merfolk still get to live their lives (so the Salmon and Octopus folk get to live long lives here!)