Home » Paragraph Writing » Paragraph on “Is a whale’s skeleton like other mammals’ skeletons?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Paragraph on “Is a whale’s skeleton like other mammals’ skeletons?” complete paragraph for Class 9, Class 10, Class 11 and Class 12

Is a whale’s skeleton like other mammals’ skeletons?

 

A whale’s skeleton is in many ways like any other mammal’s skeleton, but it has been changed, or modified, during evolution to suit the special needs of an animal designed to spend all its life in water.

If you see a whale skeleton at a museum, study it closely. Firstly, you will see that it is very long and straight, with a rib cage and a backbone. Whales do not have hind legs, however, and so they have usually lost completely the bones of the hind limbs. (Remember that they propel themselves through the water by using their tails, so they do not need legs.) They also have extremely short necks, and in some types of whale the neck bones are joined together so that they cannot move their heads alone. The skull is also unlike that of other mammals. The bones of the skull are drawn out (telescoped). This is what makes dolphins and porpoises look as though they have very long faces. Another interesting difference is in the forelimbs. Many of the bones — such as the radius, ulna and humerus — are very short and solid. This gives the flippers great strength. In the picture showing the bones of a whale’s hand you can see how they might look if we could y see through the skin and muscle of a flipper. Notice that they have finger bones, but a very tiny thumb. Also, whales do not have nails or claws as other mammals do.

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