Extra credit: LA County Museum
When visiting the LA County Museum I noticed many oceanography-related exhibits. I learned about many fascinating marine mammals that were mentioned during class session. It was a great feeling to be able recognized more than half the marine mammals, and be able to educate my friend that did not know much about them. I witnessed an Oarfish that was 14-5 foot fish. I couldn’t believe how big the fish was, it swam into Big Fisherman Cove at Catalina Island. They are reported to have been 3,000 feet. I found it interesting that they are known to hang vertically in the water in a “heads up” position. Oarfish tend to feed on krill. I learned a lot about whales and dolphins. The earliest whales were from coastal freshwater river, which is now known as Pakistan and India. At one point in whale’s history they were able to walk on land, they had four legs. They were also able to swim in water. Their fossils were able to prove this. These early whales lived about 50 million years ago. Then later years they adapted to the oceans, their kidneys became metabolize the salt in the seawater. Their forelimbs became into flippers, hind limps became more reduced and ultimately enclosed with the body form. I also learned about Steller sea lions, male sea lions could reach 11 feet long and weigh 2,425 pounds. Female sea lions are much smaller they only weigh 770 pounds. The main predators of Steller sea lions are the Orcas and great white sharks. I also learned about the ancient oceans. While the dinosaurs were around the Mesozoic, in the oceans there