The Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneswar on Monday celebrated its 11th foundation day on Monday by opening an exhibition of a 32-feet sperm whale skeleton on the occasion.
The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale and the largest toothed predator. The sperm whale feeds primarily on squid. Sperm whales are believed to be able to remain submerged for 90 minutes and to dive as deep as 2,250 meters, making them the second deepest diving mammal after Cuvier's beaked whale. The head of the sperm whale contains a liquid wax called spermaceti, from which the sperm whale derives its name, said scientists.
This skeleton had been retrieved from a sperm whale carcass found on the Keluni beach near Astaranga in Puri district in December 2014. After it was brought to the museum, cleaning, processing, preservation and articulation of all the bones was done for about eight months with the expertise of Dr SP Parida.
With this exhibition, museum is now able to showcase both kinds of whales along with the baleen whale collected during 2010 from Gopalpur beach.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wl) and Chief Wildlife Warden, Odisha inaugurated the exhibition in the presence of Nandankanan Zoological Park Director Dr Sudarshan Panda, MoEF Director VP Upadhyay and OUAT Professor MM Hussain.