Gigantic whales have stretchy 'bungee cord' nerves -- ScienceDaily
The stretchy nerves explain how the massive whales are able to balloon an immense pocket between their body wall and overlying blubber to capture prey during feeding dives.
"This discovery was totally unexpected and unlike other nerve structures we've seen in vertebrates, which are of a more fixed length," says Wayne Vogl of UBC's Cellular and Physiological Sciences department.
"The rorquals' bulk feeding mechanism required major changes in anatomy of the tongue and mouth blubber to allow large deformation, and now we recognize that it also required major modifications in the nerves in these tissues so they could also withstand the deformation."
In humans, stretching nerves usually damages them. In these whales, the nerve cells are packaged inside a central core in such a way that the individual nerve fibers are never really stretched, they simply unfold.
"Our next step is to get a better understanding of how the nerve core is folded to allow its rapid unpacking and re-packing during the feeding process," says UBC zoologist Robert Shadwick.
The researchers don't know yet whether anything similar will turn up in other animals -- the ballooning throats of frogs, for example, or the long and fast tongues of chameleons.
"This discovery underscores how little we know about even the basic anatomy of the largest animals alive in the oceans today," says Nick Pyenson, a UBC postdoctoral fellow currently curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. "Our findings add to the growing list of evolutionary solutions that whales evolved in response to new challenges faced in marine environments over millions of years."
The findings are reported in Current Biology. Rorquals are the largest group among baleen whales, and include blue whales and fin whales. Specimens the researchers studied were obtained at a commercial whaling station in Iceland.
Welcome to SUV System Ltd!
SUV System Ltd is ISO 90012008 Certified electronics distributor with 10 years of experiences.
We have built up long term business relationship with about many companies which are stockers and authorized agents. we have a steady and reliable supply to meet customer's demands to the greatest extent .Confidently, we are able to lower your cost and support your business with our years of professional service.
SUV System Ltd is Electronic Components Distributor Supplies,Find Quality Electronic Components Supplies Products IC(Integrated Circuits),Connectors,Capacitor,Resistors,Diodes,Transistors,LED at Suvsystem.com. Sourcing Other Energy, Environment, Excess Inventory Products from Manufacturers and Suppliers at Suvsystem.com
Electronic Components distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com
Connectors Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Connectors-1.html
IC Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/IC(Integrated-Circuits)-1.html
LED Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/LED-1.html
Capacitor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Capacitor-1.html
Transistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Transistors-1.html
Resistor Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Resistors-1.html
Diode Distributor:http://www.suvsystem.com/l/Diodes-1.html
SUV System Ltd insists on the managing faith ofsincereness,speciality,foresight, win-win,so we build up stable-relationship customers located all over the world, including the States, Europe, Argentina, UAE, Malaysia, Australia,and India etc
we are focus on the following fields,and hope we can help you.
NS IC IR Diodes LINEAR IC NEC Diodes components ELPIDA IC ON Transistors ST Transistors Transistors AGILENT LED Civil IC Fast Recovery Diodes Rectifier Diodes INTERSIL IC Low Ohmic Resistors Bipolar Transistors Discrete Semiconductor Transistors Atmel IC LED part MOTOROLA IC Fleld Effect Transistors MAXIM IC Freescale Semiconductor Other Parts Switches Dialight LED Infineon Technologies Transistors ON Diodes NXP Transistors Cypress IC TOSHIBA Diodes Chip Ferrite Beads Transistors Freescale Military IC Metal Can Packages Transistors Capacitor Multi-units Transistors PANASONIC Resistors ALTERA IC Voltage Regulators Transistors
http://www.suvsystem.com/a/44683.aspx
