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March 2, 2012
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Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Southampton, UK). He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs but has an avid interest in all things tetrapod. His publications can be downloaded at darrennaish.wordpress.com. He has been blogging at Tetrapod Zoology since 2006. Check out the Tet Zoo podcast at tetzoo.com!
Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Southampton, UK). He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs but has an avid interest in all things tetrapod. His publications can be downloaded at darrennaish.wordpress.com. He has been blogging at Tetrapod Zoology since 2006. Check out the Tet Zoo podcast at tetzoo.com!
It’s funny how things work out. We looked recently at a ‘mystery’ whale carcass from Baja California. As explained here, it turned out to be a Risso’s dolphin Grampus griseus. I recently watched a 2009 sci-fi movie called Hunter Prey. Should you wish to know more about it, the wikipedia article is pretty good. Anyway, at a few points in the movie, we see the skeleton of what is evidently a living species of cetacean (and not, as I suppose we’re meant to think, that of some weird alien beast). In best hi-tech fashion, I took a few photos of my TV screen, and the images you see here are the result.
There are quite a few places in the world – mostly coastal deserts – where you can go and see sun-bleached cetacean skeletons, lying in the same places where they were deposited in decades or even centuries past. Hunter Prey includes a reference to the ‘Baja dunes’ in the end credits, and wikipedia says that it was filmed in Mexico. Anyway – your task: identify the species we see in the movie. I include a cropped image of its skull.
About the Author: Darren Naish is a science writer, technical editor and palaeozoologist (affiliated with the University of Southampton, UK). He mostly works on Cretaceous dinosaurs and pterosaurs but has an avid interest in all things tetrapod. His publications can be downloaded at darrennaish.wordpress.com. He has been blogging at Tetrapod Zoology since 2006. Check out the Tet Zoo podcast at tetzoo.com!
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It seems a beaked whale skull, probably a Baird´s beaked whale, Berardius bairdii, Steneger, 1883.
Link to thisClearly a desert adapted ropen.
(I actually agree with Vidal).
Link to thisAquatic gorgonopsian if I ever saw one!
Link to thisI’ll go out on a limb and say that it’s from a short-nosed common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), filmed with a bit of forced perspective.
Link to thisI like beaked whale too, and Berardius seems like a good guess but I’ll throw out Indopacetus pacificus to keep things interesting.
Link to thisYes, there was a small beaching of Baird’s beaked whale on Isla San Jose in the southern Gulf of California, in 2006. So it’s possible, assuming that the skeleton is 2-3 years old.
Link to thisNah, after stumbling on a post about “Moore’s Beach Monster” on some obscure zoology blog I’m pretty sure Vidal has the right of it. That mesethmoid is pretty distinctive.
Link to thisSome sort of Ziphiid skull – and yes, it does look like a rather good match for Berardius, as opposed to Mesoplodon or Ziphius.
There’s also two more great cetacean skull moments in recent movies. In a scene in the movie “Predators”, when the humans come upon the predator encampment and see all sorts of gory skeletal totems adorning the camp – the camera pans back, and you can clearly see a killer whale skull in the foreground.
The second one is in the the new Sherlock Holmes movie (the first one, not the one that came out a month ago) – when Holmes and Watson are looking at the workshop of the red headed dwarf, there is what appears to be a harbor porpoise skull with quite a bit of dessicated soft tissue still on it.
Link to thisUpside-down Russian archaeocete
Does anybody know if there are any good pictures out there of a mounted Berardius skeleton? I’m wondering how Basilosaurus-like it may look.
Link to thisI have no guess as to the identity of the dolphin skull, BUT I do have another thing to say about “Predators.”
Predators must bring in a lot more Earth game than just people and whales–I noticed at least one bear skull, what appeared to be a warthog skull. I can see the warthog being somewhat “alien” to people who aren’t familiar with it, but a bear? It’s a BEAR. And where was the token fanservice Xenomorph skull?
Link to thisBusted up orca skull? That’s the best I can do.
Link to this“Aquatic gorgonopsian if I ever saw one!”
Well, that statement is certainly true!
Mike from Ottawa
Link to thisI wonder if the many new readers here (ha ha, I kid, I kid) are understanding all the ropen- and gorgonopsian-based humour? I hope so. It is a long and honourable tradition, and long may it continue. As for whale skulls… we’re doing well so far. Some of you have nailed it, I reckon. More soon.
Darren
Link to thisDid a little online research, seems the Barid’s beaked whale people got it right.
Link to thisWhy hasn’t anybody acknowledged the fact that this is clearly an abyssal neoplesiosaur of the variety found off the coast of Monterey?
Hunter Prey definitely isn’t the first to do something of the sort… I seem to recall a certain Star Trek: Enterprise episode that tried to pass off a giraffe skull as coming from a race of “extinct flying aliens”.
Link to thisWhere is the mesethmoid? Does it form the nasal septum?
Link to thisBoesse:
“There’s also two more great cetacean skull moments in recent movies.”
If we’re counting whale skeleton appearances in Hollywood movies, let’s not forget Alien vs. Predator. Of course, in that case it wasn’t entirely gratuitous, as some of the action took place in an abandoned whaling station.
Link to this