Educator’s Guide

Inside: • Suggestions to Help You Come Prepared • Essential Questions for Student Inquiry • Strategies for Teaching in the Exhibition • Map of the Exhibition • Online Resources • Standards Correlation • Glossary

The Museum gratefully acknowledges the sdnat.org/whales County of San Diego and the City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. ESSENTIAL Questions

What is a whale? Many populations remain endangered. National and intergovernmental organizations collaborate to establish Whales are mammals; they breathe air and live their and enforce regulations that protect whale populations, whole lives in water. People often use the word “whale” to and some are showing recovery from . The most refer to large species like sperm and humpback whales, effective whale protection programs involve the whole life but dolphins and porpoises are also whales since they’re cycle, from monitoring migration routes to conserving all members of the order . Cetaceans evolved important breeding habitats and feeding grounds. from hoofed animals that walked on four legs, and their closest living relatives are hippos. Living whales are divided into two groups: whales (Mysticeti, or How do scientists study whales? filter feeders) and toothed whales (Odontoceti, which Many kinds of scientists — conservation biologists, hunt larger prey). Whales inhabit all of the world’s major paleontologists, taxonomists, anatomists, ecologists, oceans, and even some of its rivers. Some species are geneticists — work together to learn more about these widespread, while others are localized. Many migrate magnificent creatures. Fossil specimens provide a long distances, with some species feeding in polar glimpse back some 50 million years, to whales’ waters and mating in warmer ones during the winter land-dwelling ancestors. New fossil whale species, and months. All must come to the surface to breathe, but even new living ones, are still being discovered. Scientists some dive to great depths to feed. Highly intelligent, use many methods to monitor these mysterious animals: whales have very strong social ties and often hunt and beach, boat, and plane surveys to count and identify migrate together. To communicate they make sounds individual whales and monitor their life histories; tissue that range from a dolphin’s series of clicks to the male sampling for genetic analysis; and satellite tracking to humpback’s complex song. understand habitat use and long-range migrations. Some living whale species are How are whales adapted to life in water? known only from strandings, which provide Whales can be vastly larger than land mammals because a unique opportunity to water supports their weight. Other specialized features study the anatomy and for living in water include: genetics of these marine • a streamlined shape, and layer of that mammals. Scientists insulates against the cold analyze both physical fea- • plates of baleen that enable Mysticeti, like right and tures and DNA (extracted Bryde’s whales, to filter huge amounts of krill and oth- from living animals and historic specimens) to er small prey from seawater resolve important issues • echolocation — most or all Odontoceti (toothed whales such as conservation like killer whales and porpoises) use sound to navigate, Photos help identify individual priorities and the whales. Each humpback has its communicate, and find prey placement of whales own individual tail fluke, like • nostrils, or blowholes, on the top of the skull so whales on the tree of life. human fingerprints. can breathe without raising their heads out of water How are whales an important part of many (See insert for more about specialized adaptations.) cultures? These massive and awe-inspiring creatures have played a How can people protect whales? vital role in the lives of coastal peoples around the world, For millennia whales faced only dangers like disease and as both a crucial natural resource and a source of ritual predators, but over the last few centuries, commercial and legend. They are sacred to ’s indigenous hunting for oil, meat, baleen, , and bone drove Mäori people, whose culture is rich with whale-riding some species to near-extinction. For example, 200,000 stories and traditions. Whale imagery is incorporated southern right whales were hunted down to fewer than into architecture and body art, and whale bone weapons 100 females. Chronic and acute noise pollution from and ornaments are prized. In the Americas, native people engines, seismic surveys, and can interfere with also have long utilized and honored whales, relying upon essential whale communication. Water pollution, coastal their meat for food, bone for tools and building material, development, entanglement in fishing nets, collisions and oil for fuel — and upon the majestic animals with ships, and climate change also put whales at risk. themselves as source of spiritual inspiration. GLOSSARY ambergris: a solid, waxy substance formed in the intestines of sperm whales that floats and occasionally COME PREPARED washes ashore. Ambergris was once valued as an Plan your visit. For information about reservations ingredient in perfume. and transportation, visit sdnat.org/whales. baleen: flexible plates that hang Read the Essential Questions in this guide to see from the upper jaws of baleen how themes in Whales: Giants of the Deep connect to whales with hairy fringes that strain your curriculum. Identify the key points that you’d small animals from sea-water. like your students to learn. Although it’s made of keratin, like your fingernails, baleen was once Review the Teaching in the Exhibition section of this called “whalebone.” It was used for guide for an advance look at the fossils, models, arti- many products that required facts, and interactives that you and your class will be strength and flexibility, like corset encountering. stays and buggy whips, until plastics were invented in the 20th century. Decide how your students will explore the Whales: Giants of the Deep exhibition. blubber: a thick layer of under the outermost part • You and your chaperones can facilitate the visit of the skin of marine mammals using the Teaching in the Exhibition section of this cetaceans: a common name for members of the order guide. to which all whales belong. The order Cetacea contains almost 80 species, and can be divided into Mysticeti • Students, individually or in groups, can use copies (baleen whales) and Odontoceti (toothed whales, includ- of the map to choose their own paths. ing dolphins and porpoises). Cetaceans are carnivorous, and except for four species of freshwater dolphins, all live in the ocean. CORRELATIONS TO NATIONAL STANDARDS echolocation: the process of emitting sound waves and Your visit to the Whales: Giants of the Deep exhibition can listening to the echoes to locate food and avoid obsta- be correlated to the following standards. cles. Sometimes referred to as “biosonar,” echolocation A Framework for K-12 Science Education evolved independently in bats, cetaceans (dolphins and Science Practices • Asking Questions and Defining Problems other toothed whales), shrews and some other • Analyzing and Interpreting Data • Constructing Explanations mammals. and Designing Solutions • Engaging in Argument from Evidence krill: small, shrimp-like crustaceans that are the main • Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information food for hundreds of animals, from fish to birds to many baleen whales. Crosscutting Concepts • Patterns • Cause and Effect: Mechanism and Explanation • Scale, Proportion, and Quantity mammal: a member of the class Mammalia, vertebrate • Systems and System Models • Function • Stability and animals descended from the common ancestor of the Change living placentals, marsupials, and monotremes. Almost Core Ideas • LS1.A: Structure and Function • LS1.B: Growth all mammals share certain physical characteristics: they and Development of Organisms • LS1.C: Organization for have hair; they’re warm-blooded; and they produce milk Matter and Energy Flow in Organisms • LS1.D: Information to nurse their young. Processing • LS3.A: Inheritance of Traits • LS3.B: Variation of Traits • sonar: the use of sound waves to detect submerged LS4.A: Evidence of Common Ancestry and Diversity • LS4.B: objects or calculate distances underwater. Natural Selection • LS4.C: Adaptation • LS4.D: Biodiversity and Humans stranding: swimming or drifting onto land. Once stranded, whales suffer internal organ damage, National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies overheat, rapidly deteriorate, and usually die. Thematic Strands • 1. Culture • 3. People, Places, and Environments • 8. Science, Technology, and Society tree of life: a branching diagram that shows how forms • 9. Global Connections of life, both living and extinct, are related to each other. Teaching in the EXHIBITION

Whales have long captured the imagina- Carving of Whale Rider tions of people around the world, who have Upon entering the exhibition you’ll see the representation of a young hunted, revered, and passionately protected man riding a whale. He is Paikea, an ancestral figure for New Zealand’s them. This exhibition uses fossils, models, Mäori people. Whales feature prominently in Mäori traditions and are specimens, and artifacts to explore the carved on structures like this gateway. cultural significance, evolutionary history, and amazing biological adaptations of these highly intelligent marine mammals. The Whale People Guided Explorations below are organized Students can watch perspectives on whale biology, whaling, conserva- around five themes. Refer to the map tion, research, and cultural tradition in videos throughout the exhibition. for locations.

1. EVOLUTION & DIVERSITY 2. SOUND OVERVIEW: The ancestors of whales lived on land. Once OVERVIEW: In addition to sight, whales rely on the ability to whales adapted to the water about 50 million years ago, produce and perceive different sounds in order to navigate, they diversified and came to inhabit the world’s oceans. find food, and communicate. Almost 80 species are alive today. Scientists study both living and fossil species, using anatomy and genetic GUIDED EXPLORATIONS evidence to understand how whales evolved and where a. “Search and Destroy” theater: In this five-minute they fit in the tree of life. immersive experience students will explore hunting from a ’s point of view. Ask: What is the whale GUIDED EXPLORATIONS hunting? (giant squid) How does the whale find its prey? a. Casts of fossils: These skeletons belong to early (echolocation) relatives of modern whales. Have students find out when they lived, then compare land-dwelling Pakicetus b. Sound chamber: Different whale species make a variety and Ambulocetus to the water-dwelling Dorudon. of sounds, ranging from throaty rumbles and melodious Ask: How do skeletons of the whales that lived on land phrases to squeaks, whistles, clicks, and buzzes. Invite compare to those that were fully aquatic? (in aquatic students to turn the dial to tune in to the voices of whales, hind limbs are smaller or absent, nostrils move eight different whale species and to explore more via towards top of head, forelimbs evolve into flippers, graphics and animations. They can also compare the vertebrae in tail flatten) low-frequency sounds of the baleen whales to the higher frequency ones produced by odontocetes. b. Diversity wall & beaked whale skulls: There are two main living whale groups: baleen, or Mysticeti, and 3. ANATOMY toothed or Odontoceti. At the diversity wall, have students identify them. Ask: What is the main dif- OVERVIEW: Whales share many anatomical features with ference between these two groups? (Mysticeti have land mammals, but also evolved unique adaptations that baleen, Odontoceti have teeth) What other differences enabled them to become fully aquatic. do they observe? (Mysticeti tend to be larger, have two GUIDED EXPLORATIONS blowholes instead of one). Have them explore the diver- a. Blue whale’s heart: Invite students to crawl inside sity wall to see where the beaked whales fit in, then . this life-size model of a blue whale’s heart. Inside they examine the case on the left to see how scientists can see colorful graphics about its enormous size and classify members of the beaked whale family using weight, and hear the heartbeat. Ask: Why does the whale anatomical characters: things as simple as the shape heart need to be so big? (to pump blood through a and position of their tusk-like teeth. Also ask them to massive animal) consider the differences between a dolphin and a porpoise. (dolphin teeth are conical and porpoise teeth spade-shaped; porpoises have beaks) Anatomy interactive & touchable bones: Students can GUIDED EXPLORATION use the interactive display to investigate and compare a. Strandings section: Students can watch a video, sniff a dolphin’s external features, internal organs, and ambergris, and read about strandings. Ask: What are skeletal structure to those of a sperm whale and a some causes of whale strandings? (parasites, pollution, human. Then have students touch some of the bones disease, disorientation, accidents with boats, entangle- they just explored, including a vertebra, rib, and tooth. ments with fishing gear. Weakened whales may swim into shallow water where it is easier to breathe.) How have Flipper X-rays and bones: Even though a whale flipper humans responded? (tried to rescue whales, collected and a human arm and hand look very different, they meat and bones, taken samples for scientific research) contain the same kinds and basic arrangement of bones. Ask students to look at the X-rays of the flippers of a dolphin and a and 5. WHALE PEOPLE compare them to the human arm and hand. How are OVERVIEW: The lives of many people around the world they used differently? How do the skeletons reflect have been inextricably linked with whales. this? (hands are highly flexible, have mobile joints; flippers are stiff paddles without movable joints) GUIDED EXPLORATIONS Models of dolphin mother and calf: Use the a. Mäori storehouse, artifacts, and animation: Have models and information on the text panels to guide students watch the video about the varied role of an exploration of how whales mate, give birth, and whales in Mäori culture, then examine the ceremonial care for their young. and everyday objects in the storehouse. Ask: Why are these objects so important to the Mäori? (whales are Scale model case: Have students observe the models central to Mäori traditions; the material these objects are of different whale species, and compare their sizes made of is rare) relative to humans. b. Whaling history wall and whaling artifacts: Sperm whale skeletons: Invite students to observe Have students explore this timeline of the history the male and female skeletons and compare them of and examine whaling to images of the fleshed-out whale on the panel. Ask traditions in America through artifacts such as a whale students to point out features such as the presence oil lamp, a log book from the New England whaling of teeth, fused neck vertebrae, bones in flippers, and ship William Rotch, and an early edition of Moby Dick. the contrast between the shape of upper jawbone Ask: How have and the bulbous head. behaviors and attitudes towards hunting whales  Feeding: Have students observe the skulls and changed over time? (beached whales were passively compare the feeding strategies of the two types gathered; development of commercial whaling reduced of whale. Ask students to identify how the structure some populations to the brink of extinction; global whale of each skull reflects that animal’s feeding strategy. conservation movement has emerged) (Mysticetes use baleen to efficiently filter large quantities c. Whale Riders Theater: Students can watch of small animals from seawater; odontocetes have whale-riding stories from three different Mäori tribes structures for echolocation, which allows them to seek of New Zealand. larger prey, and some use teeth to grab it. Odontocetes without erupted teeth feed by creating suction.) d. “A Global Vision: The Power of Whales”: Invite students to examine these sacred objects and everyday 4. STRANDINGS items from Alaska, Canada, and Peru, and consider how they represent the importance of whales to these OVERVIEW: Sometimes whales come ashore accidentally, Native peoples. alone or in groups. Strandings often mobilize communal rescue efforts. Whales that can’t be saved present a rare opportunity to collect material for scientific or cultural purposes. ONLINE Resources

Whales: Giants of the Deep CONSERVATION sdnat.org/whales Information about and manage- Learn about exhibition highlights, whale evolution and ment around the world, including conservation status biology, whale people, and related Museum programs. and how humans can work to protect cetaceans. WWF: Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises Whales | Tohora wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/endangered_species/ collections.tepapa.govt.nz/exhibitions/whales cetaceans The Whales exhibition website of the Te Papa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand. Whale Research whaleresearch.org International Whaling Commission Cetaceans: Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises iwc.int nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans Detailed information about every cetacean species from International Union for Conservation of Na- NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service. ture and Natural Resources (IUCN) iucnredlist.org Whales: The Kids’ Times nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/education/whales.htm WHOPPING WHALE FACTS Eight PDFs compiled by NOAA, each focused on a Even the smallest whale — the finless porpoise, which different species. weighs 30-45 kg (65-100 lbs) — is huge compared to the “average” land mammal, which weighs less than one pound. Discovery of Sound in the Sea dosits.org Sperm whales were hunted for the oil found in the The physical science of how mammals (including chamber at the top of their heads. Their humans) use underwater sound to navigate and oil lit city streets and lubricated machines all over communicate. the world.

Gray whales migrate farther than any whale — or any mammal. Their 18,000-kilometer round trip (11,200 miles) takes them from the Bering Sea down the Pacif- ic Coast of North America to Baja California, Mexico, and back to the Arctic.

CREDITS Photo Credits Whales: Giants of the Deep was developed and presented by Cover: Caption: Juvenile humpback whale underwater the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. © Dr. Ingrid Visser, Orca Research Trust This exhibition was made possible through the support of Essential Questions: Orca whale fluke © Dr Ingrid the New Zealand Government. Visser, Orca Research Trust Glossary: Whale feeding case, © Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 2008. The Museum gratefully acknowledges the County of San Diego and the Come Prepared: Hunter’s helmet, © AMNH/D.Finnin. City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. Whale Adaptations: blue whale and common dolphin illustrations, © Pieter Folkens. The Whales Educator’s Guide was developed by the American Museum of Natural History.

© 2013 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved. Whale ADAPTATIONS

Adaptations Baleen Unique to Instead of teeth, these whales have flexible plates that hang from Baleen Whales their upper jaws, with hairy fringes that strain small animals like (Mysticeti) krill from seawater. Baleen is made of keratin, like your fingernails.

blue whale

Common Adaptations Hearing Flippers Flukes A whale’s external A whale’s front Most of a whale’s swim- Blowhole Eyes ear is the size limbs, or flippers, ming power comes from Whales breathe Unlike humans, of a pinhole and have the same moving its body and these air like other whales can see plays little role in kinds and basic horizontal lobes at the end mammals. They very well both in hearing. Instead, arrangement of of its tail up and down. must come to the and out of water. whales hear bones as human surface to take in But studies sug- through “acoustic” arms. These rud- air through their gest that whales fat in their lower der-like paddles Streamlined nasal openings, don’t have color jaws, which trans- provide both Teardrop Shape the blowholes on vision. mits sound along stability and great This reduces resis- top of the head. a channel leading maneuverability in tance, so whales to the inner ear. the water. can move through water faster.

common Adaptations dolphin Unique to Toothed Whales (Odontoceti)

Teeth Echolocation Odontocetes retain the teeth of their mammal ancestors. But Toothed whales use this “biosonar” to locate some are highly specialized, as in beaked whales and narwhals, prey and navigate with remarkable accura- while dolphins, for example, have lots of the same kinds of teeth. cy. They produce a series of sounds, and Toothed whales hunt their prey — fish, squid, and other whales interpret the echoes for information about and marine mammals — one by one. They either grab it with the seafloor, underwater obstacles, and the their teeth or suck the food directly into their mouths. presence of other animals in the water.

© 2013 American Museum of Natural History. All rights reserved. EVOLUTION SEARCH AND DESTROY

SKULL DIVERSITY SOUND CHAMBER CASE BULL FEEDING CASE

WHALE HEART

TOUCH TOOTH

WHALES IN THE LANDSCAPE

TOUCH FIN WHALE RIB & VERTEBRAE

COW HISTORY WALL

SPERM WHALES

MAIHI WHALE RIDER THEATER

STRANDINGS

PATOKA