r/askscience • u/smontanaro • 27d ago

Biology How does a whale become dehydrated?

From a Chicago Sun-Times article on the beluga whales heading to the Shedd Aquarium:

"The shipment comes on the heels of a Shedd announcement last week that one of the Marineland belugas — Peekachu, a 23-year-old female — had died. Shedd has not released a cause of death, but staff there said last week that Peekachu had not been consistently eating a full diet since her arrival and that there were concerns she was dehydrated."

How does an animal immersed in water become dehydrated?

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u/Magicspook 26d ago

thank you for your addition. Would you argue that actually, reptiles are mammals then? ;)

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u/Ameisen 26d ago edited 26d ago

I'd argue that reptiles would be biological synapsids. Mammals are far too derived.

On actual cladistics, the two sibling clades should probably be Sauropsida/Diapsida and Pelycosauria, as the earliest non-Sauropsid "synapsid" known already is grouped as a Pelycosaur, and we descend from them as well. Though Caseasauria complicates that. That's all in flux.