Whales tan too, basking in the blue

摘要

Just like us, blue whales go a shade darker in the sun to protect themselves from harmful UV rays. By studying skin samples from sperm, fin and blue whales, Mark Birch-Machin of Newcastle University, UK, found that blue whales show the most marked tan. Their grey skin darkens as ultraviolet radiation intensifies from February to May in the Gulf of California, where the whales spend the winter. As their skin darkened, so the amount of damage to mitochondrial DNA in skin cells dropped (Scientific Reports, doi. orgnq). But whether sunburn leads to melanomas in whales -as in trout - is not known.