Dolphins are very intelligent animals and fascinating to humans. They have several interesting features, such as dorsal fins, flippers, and eyes. One thing about dolphins that often confuses people is whether they have any hair because they certainly do not look like those mammals with fur.
Dolphins and whales do not have hair. Nor do they have eyelashes. Hair becomes matted and slows swimming speed. Both species also lack fur. Instead, the bodies of cetaceans are covered with slick and rubbery skin which allows them to swim with minimal friction acting against them.
Do dolphins have any kind of body hair? The answer is no, but there is a specific reason why they don’t. The reason behind this lack of hair is that they live in water for most if not all their lives. Body hairs can easily be ripped off by waves and currents, which would not happen on land where gravity plays a part allowing for stronger roots to hold hairs in place or even allow them to move around without falling out.
If dolphins ever need to come to land, they do not have anybody’s hair. As a result of their adaptation to living in water, they lost all the hairs present in most mammals. They are now completely bald, which helps them swim faster and better as if their bodies were streamlined.
Many people wonder about the presence or lack thereof of body hair in marine mammals such as polar bears that live close to the North Pole region where ice covers approximately 10 million square kilometers around it or seals that live near the South Pole where there is no land at all, and only glaciers cover the way. The reason behind this phenomenon lies in how these animals can survive living in these regions and why some creatures require more insulation than others while some don’t even need any.
Do whales and dolphins have hair?
That is a question that has been asked for decades. Some science students have even gone so far as to examine whales and dolphins microscopically to look for any signs of hidden hair.
The answer, in short, is “no.” Like their close relatives, baleen whales and toothed whales, they do not have the same types of mammalian hair found on other mammals such as humans.
Most whales and dolphins must rise to the surface often to take in oxygen from the air through their blowhole. They also give live birth rather than lay eggs. However, unlike other mammals who make milk with teats, cetaceans produce milk with mammary glands inside their abdomen. When a baby whale or dolphin is born, the mother must help it, nurse, by providing her nipple for their mouth to latch onto.
For years people have speculated whether whales and dolphins had hair at all and, if so, where they would be located on their bodies. They have pointed out the whale’s lack of hair when they are born, then later in life, they begin to grow new dorsal fins. So some scientists concluded that perhaps after birth did these mammals grow new hairs on their bodies. However, there is no case of a dead adult whale or dolphin with any hair found on them.
One theory was that if whales and dolphins did have body hair, it would be located on the top of their heads right along with their blowhole opening because that area seems to get the most exposure to air. However, no one has overcome this hurdle either, even with powerful microscopes used for examining cetaceans up close. The hairs simply aren’t there at all.
Do dolphins have skin or fur?
Dolphins do not have fur as we do. They also don’t have scales like a fish might. Instead, they have a thick layer of blubber to keep them warm, and their skin is more similar to ours and other mammals (seals).
The dolphin’s skin resembles that of seals and other marine mammals like whales, manatees, or sea lions rather than the human skin. The thickness of the dolphin’s epidermis has been estimated between 0.5 and 1.1 mm; it is subject to seasonal variations associated with water temperature changes. Its dermal layer consists mainly of fibrous connective tissue containing fat cells apart from vessels and nerves, which are present in all layers but concentrated around collagen fibers.
The dermis is characterized by several cellular elements, including fibers and cells of different types and aggregations of lymphoid tissue. There are connective tissues with coarse bundles in the deeper zones, an abundance of elastic fiber networks, collagenous fibers, and markings from facial muscles or cartilage. The epidermis is relatively thin compared to terrestrial mammals. It contains several kinds of cells (melanocytes, leucocytes, and others) together with crystals that give it a silvery appearance: guanine for light reflection and calcium phosphate – the product of metabolism – and lipid substances produced by fatty degeneration.
Dolphin skin can be divided into three layers:
- The superficial layer (or corneum)
- The intermediate layer (or corium)
- The deep layer (or hypodermis)
The epidermis of the dolphin has two main types of cells: squamous and glandular. The most superficial part is covered with cilia and forms a thick, irregular stratum corneum. This is divided into five or six layers depending on where it’s studied: however, some areas have more than ten layers of this type of cell, which is highly unusual in mammals. These layers form a structure similar to the human skin; however, they differ in having fewer cells. The deeper zone contains several denser aggregations of collagen fibers than any other place in the dolphin’s skin. In between these layers, there are many cells and some lipids. The quantity of cell and lipid depends upon the zone: in some regions, they can be found in all layers, while in others, they remain only on the surface.
The thicker layer (or epithelium) is formed by several types of cells: melanocytes that produce melanin or pigment, leucocytes such as mast cells that help with blood clotting, and bacteria fight and dermal Langerhans that prevent infections. There is an abundance of adipose tissue between the epidermis and dermis, protecting the body from temperature changes. This thick layer of fat also helps insulate their skin, so it doesn’t get burned when they go into warm waters close to the equator.
Do dolphins have eyelashes?
Dolphins do not have eyelashes.
They don’t need them in the sea, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be effective because seawater would just wash them away anyways. Instead of eyelashes, dolphins have a protective lid that serves the same purpose as an upper and lower eyelid for land mammals.
The lagena is where the dolphin’s ear meets their eye on the top of their head, which helps them with hyper-sound reception; hearing underwater sounds up to 500 miles away thanks to echolocation. The optic nerve connects back to the brain through holes in this membrane, making it susceptible to damage from foreign objects like water or sand while out of the water.
Dolphins are typically black and white, so they do not have to deal with much light reflection like other animals who need coloration for this purpose (such as sharks), but even if they were colorful, it wouldn’t make much difference because their eyes reflect light back at them as well; this is known as “eyeshine.” This means dolphins need to wear sunglasses when surfing or otherwise to look directly into bright lights like on boats.
What mammal does not have hair?
What mammal does not have hair? Whales and dolphins. Other than these marine mammals, most mammals have hair. The reason they do not is because of the way they move through the water.
Hair has two main functions: insulation and signaling. For whales and dolphins, having another layer of insulation would be counterproductive for their survival in water temperatures that are normally near freezing. Marine mammals rely on blubber, which is a thick fat found just below the skin to maintain body heat. Since they live entirely in the ocean, it does not make sense to trap extra heat with extra hair when nature provides an insulating layer of blubber.
For land-based animals like humans, hair provides warmth during cold weather and helps to prevent sunburn when the sun is out. Also, when mammals are cold, they tend to shiver to create heat. Hair traps that heat within the body by being next to the skin. Besides temperature regulation, hair is also used for sensory perception. This is especially important in marine mammals because they use their whiskers (or vibrissae) for balance and orientation when moving through water.
Whales and dolphins also rely on their sense of touch through vibrissae to find food. These vibrissae are a collection of hair-like projections on a whale or dolphin’s body that work as sensory organs. A cluster of vibrissae is located around the animal’s snout, but others are scattered throughout their bodies. They use these sensitive whiskers to detect nearby vibrations in the water caused by prey species. Vibrissae aid an animal’s orientation as well as feeling for objects within its reach.
Conclusion
Do dolphins have hair? No, they don’t because of their adaptation to living in water all their lives. If they ever need to come out on land, they are bald. Many mammals that live in the Arctic or Antarctic regions lose or do not have body hairs where fur or blubber does the job by insulating them.
The same principle is used when making coats for humans with locks of hair sewn together to form a thick fabric capable of keeping heat inside so people can survive in cold climates. This principle is also known as homeothermy.
