The best known cetacean species is the bottlenose dolphin. Because it lives along coastlines in many parts of the world, it is the most often seen and best studied cetacean species in the wild. The bottlenose is a popular performer at oceanariums around the world and millions of people visit marine parks each year to watch there perform there acrobatic ability. People pay as much as $100 to get a chance to swim and interact with them. Many people came to love the bottlenose dolphin through the 1960's TV series "Flipper". But what is it about these gentle creatures of the sea that makes them loved by millions of people? Is it that permanent smile? There playfulness and intelligence? Sensing that they seem to want to communicate with us as much as we do with them?
Color of Bottlenose
Pectoral Flippers
Flukes
Dorsal Fins
Rostrum
Eyes
Blowhole
**Under Construction**
I saw my first dolphin at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey when I was 7 years old. But my love for dolphins didn't start till years later in 1993 when I saw the movie "Free Willy". After that I collected everything that had to do with Keiko and orcas. I watched movies and read books about them. All my drawings and artwork changed from cartoons to orcas. Soon after my love for orcas grew stronger and expanded to many other species of dolphins and whales but mostly the beloved bottlenose. I wanted to learn everything I could about these beautiful creatures. An old friend once asked me "what is it about dolphins that you love so much?" and I had never gave that answer because I never really thought about it, but now I know. Join me now to learn about these beautiful, sleek marine mammals and why there loved by myself and so many other people.
Coloration is a nondescript gray to gray-green or gray-brown on the back, fading to white on the belly, lower jaw, and anal regions. The belly may be pinkish. This coloration, a type of camouflage known as countershading, may help conceal a dolphin from predators and prey. When viewed from above, a dolphin's dark back surface blends with the dark depths. When seen from below, a dolphin's lighter belly blends with the bright surface of the sea. Older animals in some regions sometimes show an inconspicuous spotting along their sides and on their bellies.
A dolphin's forelimbs are pectoral flippers. Pectoral flippers have all the skeletal elements of the forelimbs of terrestrial mammals, but they're foreshortened and modified. The skeletal elements are rigidly supported by connective tissue. Thick cartilage pads lie lengthwise between the bones. Pectoral flippers are curved slightly and pointed at the tips. Dolphins use their pectoral flippers mainly to steer and, with the help of the flukes, to stop. Blood circulation in the flippers adjusts to help maintain body temperature. Arteries in the flippers are surrounded by veins. Thus, some heat from the blood traveling through the arteries is transferred to the venous blood rather than the environment. This countercurrent heat exchange aids dolphins in conserving body heat. To shed excess body heat, circulation increases in veins near the surface of the flippers and decreases in veins returning to the body core.
Each lobe of the tail is called a fluke. Flukes are flattened pads of tough, dense, fibrous connective tissue, completely without bone or muscle. Longitudinal muscles of the back and caudal peduncle (tail stalk) move flukes up and down to propel a dolphin through water. The total spread of the flukes is about 20% of the total body length. Like the arteries of the flippers, the arteries of the flukes are surrounded by veins to help conserve body heat in cold water.
A couple pumps of the dolphins powerful tail fluke and there up and out of the water!
Like the flukes, the dorsal fin is made of dense, fibrous connective tissue, with no bones. The dorsal fin may act as a keel. It probably helps stabilize a dolphin as it swims, but is not necessarily essential to a dolphin's balance. (Some dolphin species lack dorsal fins.) As in the flukes and the flippers, arteries in the dorsal fin are surrounded by veins to help conserve body heat in cold water. The dorsal fin is often falcate (curved back), although the shape is quite variable. It is located at the center of the back.
A bottlenose dolphin has a well-defined rostrum (snoutlike projection), usually about 7-8 cm (3 in.) long, marked by a lateral crease. Teeth are conical and interlocking and are designed for grasping (not chewing) food. The number of teeth varies considerably among individuals. Most individuals have 20 to 25 teeth on each side of the upper jaw and 18 to 24 teeth on each side of the lower jaw, a total of 76 to 98 teeth.
Eyes are on the sides of the head, near the corners of the mouth. Glands at the inner corners of the eye sockets secrete an oily, jellylike mucus that lubricates the eyes, washes away debris, and probably helps streamline a dolphin's eye as it swims. This tearlike film may also protect the eyes from infective organisms. Ears, located just behind the eyes, are small inconspicuous openings, with no external pinnae (flaps).
A single blowhole, located on the dorsal surface of the head, is covered by a muscular flap. The flap provides a water-tight seal. A bottlenose dolphin breathes through its blowhole. The bottlenose is relaxed in a closed position. To open the blowhole, a bottlenose dolphin contracts the muscular flap. They can hold their breath for up to 7 minutes. The Blowhole is located on top of the head so that when there swimming really fast they don't have to sit up to take a breath.
