ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2010
Calcification provides mechanical reinforcement to whale baleen alpha-keratin.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 23 papers.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
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- Skin Appendage Proteins of Tetrapods: Building Blocks of Claws, Feathers, Hair and Other Cornified Epithelial Structures.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2025Review
- Filter feeding in devil rays is highly sensitive to morphology.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- High stability in filtration apparatus of African shrimp.iScience · 2023Article
- Evo Devo of the Vertebrates Integument.Journal of developmental biology · 2023Review
- Studies on Chemical Composition, Structure and Potential Applications ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Feeding without teeth: the material properties of rhamphothecae from two species of durophagous sea turtles.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Suspension feeders: diversity, principles of particle separation and biomimetic potential.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Review
- Closing the Loop with Keratin-Rich Fibrous Materials.Polymers · 2021Review
- Taphonomy of marine vertebrates of the Pisco Formation (Miocene, Peru): Insights into the origin of an outstanding Fossil-Lagerstätte.PloS one · 2021Article
- Biological and bioinspired materials: Structure leading to functional and mechanical performance.Bioactive materials · 2020Article
- Stable isotope records of sei whale baleens from Chilean Patagonia as archives for feeding and migration behavior.Ecology and evolution · 2020Article
- How whales used to filter: exceptionally preserved baleen in a Miocene cetotheriid.Journal of anatomy · 2017Article
- Parasitic outbreak of the copepod Balaenophilus manatorum in neonate loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) from a head-starting program.BMC veterinary research · 2017Article
- Evolutionary aspects of the development of teeth and baleen in the bowhead whale.Journal of anatomy · 2017Article
- Molecular markers in keratins from Mysticeti whales for species identification of baleen in museum and archaeological collections.PloS one · 2017Article
- Hydration affects the physical and mechanical properties of baleen tissue.Royal Society open science · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Hard alpha-keratins such as hair, nail, wool and horn are stiff epidermal appendages used by mammals in a variety of functions including thermoregulation, feeding and intraspecific competition. Hard alpha-keratins are fibre-reinforced structures consisting of cytoskeletal elements known as 'intermediate filaments' embedded in an amorphous protein matrix. Recent research has shown that intermediate filaments are soft and extensible in living keratinocytes but become far stiffer and less extensible in keratinized cells, and this stiffening may be mediated by air-drying. Baleen, the keratinous plates used by baleen whales during filter feeding, is an unusual mammalian keratin in that it never air dries, and in some species, it represents the most heavily calcified of all the hard alpha-keratins. We therefore tested the hypothesis that whale baleen is stiffened by calcification. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first comprehensive description of baleen material properties and show that calcification contributes to overcoming the shortcomings of stiffening this hard alpha-keratin without the benefit of air-drying. We also demonstrate striking interspecies differences in the calcification patterns among three species of baleen whales and provide novel insights into the function and evolution of this unusual biomaterial.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.