And another expert agreed when assessing the leg status of belugas, which can swim backward (whale fact number three). "The position of the camera is just such that they caught that blubber moving," Carey Richard, supervisor of cetaceans and pinnipeds at the Mystic Aquarium in Connecticut, told Mashable. This tweet from over the weekend, to be specific: Throughout history, sailors have mistaken Beluga Wales for mermaids because of their human-like knees. We got to the bottom of the beluga whale mystery. For instance, you are about to learn today that beluga whales don't have legs.
A white millipede called the lllacme plenipes, which has 750 limbs and was dubbed "the world's leggiest creature" by LiveScience in 2012.
See why nearly a quarter of a million subscribers begin their day with the Starting 5. A beluga whale plays with tourists as they visit Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, on June 18, 2017.
https://t.co/s5KTztMRkm.
It all started, as things often do on the internet, with a good ol' tweet. Japan Slaughtered Over 120 Pregnant Whales Last Year, Gray Whale Likely Died of Blunt Force Trauma. For example, in this video of a beluga whale appearing to thoroughly enjoy being serenaded by a mariachi band, there's nothing about the creature that a sailor could mistake for a part-woman, part-fish.
You know which animal does have legs?
You should really fact check," one person tweeted.
Dolphins are the same way.
You're welcome. The last time this image of the "beluga mermaid" went viral on Reddit, many people pointed out that from any other angle they nothing like a mermaid. But, as we have already established, that whale does not, in fact, have a set of gams. Although funnily enough, a school of whales is called a gam. And, sure, that feels obvious, but apparently that's a question some folks had. pic.twitter.com/10hDV0aZCm, i can't ever unsee this and that's something i'm going to have to deal with for the rest of my life https://t.co/Fi00NB9dAW. The "legs" can only be viewed seen from below, which is not an angle you'd usually view them from, and only in very rare photos.
"Belugas that are especially well-endowed with blubber will show visible 'rails' along each side of their belly where extra fat is contained," Travel4Wildlife explain. A lack of knees, or indeed legs, becomes rather obvious when looking at their skeletons.
Beluga Whale 'Knees' Are Going Viral but, Of Course, Whales Don't Have Legs | Tech & Science.
But a popular image of a surfacing beluga has for years created the curious illusion of a whale with legs and knees. You have 4 free articles remaining this month, Sign-up to our daily newsletter for more articles like this + access to 5 extra articles.
They do not have legs. Pectoral flippers have the major skeletal elements of the forelimbs of land mammals, but they're shortened and modified. The skeletal elements are rigidly supported by connective tissue. This website uses cookies to improve user experience. "My guess would be just the angle and movement of the animal through the water is causing this distortion in appearance of the blubber and maybe muscle," Mandy Migura, a marine mammal biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Mashable. By continuing to use our website you consent to all cookies in accordance with our cookie policy. By Mark Kaufman Jun 06, 2018 Beluga whales aren't hiding legs under their thick, rubbery skin. Thick cartilage pads lie lengthwise between the bones of each digit.
So let's get the obvious out of the way – no, beluga whales do not have human-like knees. They do not have legs. Beluga whales aren't hiding legs under their thick, rubbery skin.
"If you look at their skeleton they don’t even have legs so how would they have knees. But I’m not a super expert on if that’s what that actually is but I know for sure it’s not knees.".
For instance, you are about to learn today that beluga whales don't have legs. There, you've learned two whale facts today. Sign up today to get weekly science coverage direct to your inbox. You learn something new every day. It may be a windup, though the account generally posts facts from history and science.
Also, we don't want to be a complete killjoy here, but why on Earth would mermaids – which famously have no legs – have knees? A tweet has gone viral over the last few days claiming that throughout history fishermen have mistaken beluga whales for mermaids because of their... human-like knees.
Whether it's a windup or not, it appears to have been swallowed whole by tens of thousands of people who have retweeted it. A beluga whale's forelimbs are pectoral flippers. And, sure, that feels obvious, but apparently that's a question some folks had. It's just blubber and good timing with a photograph.
The only thing close to this are two tiny pelvic bones that don’t really serve any purpose. "To me it looks like that’s a beluga whale that recently had a calf because those swollen looking sections are near the mammary glands.
So here we are: Beluga whales + lower half of the body = not legs.
JohnL / Shutterstock/ Twitter / gaileyfrey. They're actually just a coincidence of how the whale's folds of fat have fallen whilst the photo was being taken.
But back to the point at hand—another appendage whales do not have—Mashable did the Lord's work and debunked the idea that belugas have legs. But the supremely leggy millipede found only in a certain part of Northern California is reportedly in danger of going extinct because of human encroachment on their habitat and climate change. To continue reading login or create an account. So let's get the obvious out of the way – no, beluga whales do not have human-like knees. "We don't know much about the biology of these organisms, so for them to go extinct before we understand what role they may play in the ecosystem, or even what they could provide to humanity given enough study, would be a huge shame," Michael Brewer, a researcher at University of Berkeley, told LiveScience at the time of the report in 2012.