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If you look at the trailing edge of this Blue Whale's tail flukes you can see lots of pendulous barnacles. These are Tassel Barnacles (Xenobalanus globicipitis), which translates as "strange barnacle, with a round head". They are not parasitic, as they merely hitch a ride to feed in the plankton-rich waters where the whale feeds, but they do increase drag on the whale. They only occur on free-moving marine creatures, especially whales and dolphins, and are globally widespread.
I photographed this tail-fluking Blue Whale in the Sea of Cortez. The scientific name of Blue Whale is Balaenoptera musculus. Balaenoptera means "winged whale", simply because this genus have dorsal fins, unlike the Right and Bowhead Whales (Balaena spp). Now for the "musculus" bit. Mus is the Latin word for a mouse, but musculus has two meanings. It can mean little mouse, but it can also mean muscle. Now muscles were named because they supposedly resembled mice moving under a sheet (especially the biceps), a bit like the old Tom and Jerry cartoons when Jerry ran under the carpet and the bulge moved along. Now the really odd thing is that Linnaeus named the largest animal on the planet, the Blue Whale with the same name as one of the smallest (House Mouse - Mus musculus). Presumably Linnaeus was thinking of muscle rather than little mouse when he bestowed the name musculus on Blue Whale. Though it has been suggested that Linnaeus might have chosen musculus as a pun.
Tags: Balaenoptera musculus Blue Whale Xenobalanus globicipis Tassel Barnacle Baja Mexico Tim Melling
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Pied flycatcher having a bit of a territorial battle with a Blue Tit over a nest box that went on for a good half an hour whilst I sat and watched :-)
Tags: Flycatcher Flycatchers Pied-Flycatcher Wild Wildlife Woodland Hand-Held Devon UK Summer-Migrants Nikon Z9 Z600-f6.3-VRS
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Gull closing it's nictitating membrane at Pett Level.
Tags: Olympus OM-1 150-400mm Gull nictating
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