Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Werth AJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5099004 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Werth Alexander J AJ Harriss Robert W RW Rosario Michael V MV George J Craig JC Sformo Todd L TL
Royal Society open science 20161026 10
Baleen, an anisotropic oral filtering tissue found only in the mouth of mysticete whales and made solely of alpha-keratin, exhibits markedly differing physical and mechanical properties between dried or (as in life) hydrated states. On average baleen is 32.35% water by weight in North Atlantic right whales (<i>Eubalaena glacialis</i>) and 34.37% in bowhead whales (<i>Balaena mysticetus</i>). Baleen's wettability measured by water droplet contact angles shows that dried baleen is hydrophobic wher ...[more]