Figure 42. — North Atlantic humpback whales have from 14 to 20 broad, widely spaced ventral grooves which extend about to the navel. Those grooves 

 remain good diagnostic characters for considerable periods after the animal's death, as evidenced in the freshly killed specimen from Newfoundland (top) 

 and the badly decomposed stranded animal from New Jersey (bottom). (Photos from U.S. National Museum, courtesy of J. G. Mead.) 



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