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To: VadeRetro
(OK, most whales lack hair. However, there are other naked mammals, especially aquatic ones.)

I was on a whale watch cruise off Cape Cod a number of years ago. This whale came right up next to the ship, and I could see **big** hairs around its blow hole. Big, like as thick as a pencil.

The naturalist on the cruise had passed around baleen and whale ear bones. The bones were the size of a softball!

324 posted on 03/25/2006 12:23:18 AM PST by Virginia-American
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To: Virginia-American
I was on a whale watch cruise off Cape Cod a number of years ago. This whale came right up next to the ship, and I could see **big** hairs around its blow hole.

Yep. All ceteans are born with hair around their snouts and blowholes. But the folicles stop producing as they become adults.
Humpback whales are an exception, the distinct tubercles (or bumps) has a thick hair sticking out of each.
Some reasearchers argue that keratin comb of baleen in C. mysceti is "hair".

348 posted on 03/25/2006 3:16:25 AM PST by dread78645 (Sorry Mr. Franklin, We couldn't keep it.)
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