Baleens Read Like a Whale's History Book
Published:12 Dec.2021 Source:Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research
By chemically analyzing sequential samples from the baleen of dead whales, it is possible to read not only the history of the diet, but also the migration route of the animals. In the latest issue of the journal Royal Society Open Science, NIOZ researcher Philip Riekenberg and colleagues from Utrecht University and Wageningen Marine Research present their results of a novel way of analyzing nitrogen isotopes in animal tissue. "
In this study, we have shown for the first time that you can take measurements of individual amino acids across the length of a baleen, to reconstruct in great detail the history of the animal," marine geochemist Marcel van der Meer of NIOZ, and one of the coordinators of the study says.