Skinny stripping

• Autores: Andy Coghlan
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3113, 2017, págs. 26-27
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Coghlan mentions the transparent chunk of skin from a sperm whale. It got rubbed off during a mass "scratchathon", a phenomenon that sees dozens of animals periodically gather, apparently to socialize and groom each other by rubbing their massive bodies together. During these gatherings, the whales can lose considerable amounts of skin. They also produce lots of feces accounting for the cloudy water. The shedding of skin is part of a natural antifouling mechanism to stop them being encrusted with other marine animals and parasites, says Luke Rendell, a marine biologist at the University of St Arindrews, UK.