THE FUTURE OF WHALES AND WHALING 



411 



Figure 226. Right ribs of a Bottlenose Dolphin in the Brussels Museum. The 3rd, 4th, 5th 

 and 6th ribs are broken but the fractures have healed in the form of pseitdarthroses. 



hundred, some of which are healed mukiple fractures of ribs and vertebral 

 processes, together with such morbid vertebral conditions as spondylitis 

 deformans, in which successive vertebrae may become fused (Fig. 227). 

 Dental infections and infections of the jaws are also known in Odontocetes 

 and particularly in Sperm whales and Killers (Figs. 228 and 229), and so 

 are individuals with congenital defects, e.g. the case of the five-foot four- 

 inch White-sided Dolphin whose spine had a hump which was probably 

 congenital. In most of these cases, human intervention cannot be blamed, 

 since many of the fractures are found in species that are not commonly 

 hunted and in fossils dating back to a time when man did not yet exist. 

 Probably most fractures are caused by fights among animals of one and 

 the same species (especially at mating time), just like the many superficial 

 scars found on the skins not only of captive dolphins (Fig. 100) but also 

 in many wild species. Some, though few, fractures must also have been 

 caused by such enemies as Killers, Swordfish and others. Thus, in 1952, 

 Prof. Ruud reported how a i3J-inch bone, originating from the rostrum 

 of a Swordfish, had produced an abscess in the skin of a 73-foot Blue Whale. 

 A similar bone was discovered in a Blue Whale in 1959, and, according 



