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Abstract
During the Antarctic Whaling Season of 1947-1948, searches in a series of foetal and postnatal male blue and fin whales gave information on variation, morphology, and morphometry of the nipples sunk in grooves posterior to the penis. A review indicates that male nipples occur in most, probably all, whalebone whales. In 1947-1948, no nipples were found in six postnatal sperm whales, and further evidence, from 41 male foetal sperm whales, and 1,269 male postnatal sperm whales examined in the Southeast Pacific in 1958 to 1962, showed that male sperm whales do not possess nipples.
Key Words: Blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales, male nipples, nipple grooves, Physeter, Balaenoptera
Introduction
During the Antarctic Whaling Season of 1947-1948, I was the Whale Fishery Inspector on board FL. F. Southern Harvester where I also where I also carried out a research programme on whale carcasses for the "Discovery" Investigations which later became part of the British National Institute of Oceanography, afterwards the Institute of Oceanographic Sciences.
One day in the middle of January 1948 a large blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus), which had been used as a fender, was heaved up. A fender prevents collision when two ships are alongside each other in the open ocean. On the high seas in the Antarctic, the only way to bring a transport ship alongside the factory ship was to use dead whales as fenders. When the transport sails, the fender whale, according to the regulations of the International Whaling Commission, has to be worked up, that is, separated into blubber, meat, and bones, although only the blubber needs to be used. Fender whales are bloated with the gases of decomposition, and making the first cuts can be dangerous; I have heard of a flenser who was blown overboard and drowned when a fender whale exploded. This particular blue whale had been used as a fender for two weeks and was much distended. As the whale came to rest between the rolling-blocks (which prevent the whale from rolling all over the deck), I was amazed to see a pair of very obvious nipples protruding from grooves on each side of the raphe, that is, the midline of the ventral surface, just behind the insertion of the penis. Each nipple was...