Measurements of large whale tissue thickness

This dataset represents the compiled measures of whale morphology and tissue thickness at the mid-body, for 8 large whale species. Measures are the average and standard deviation from data collected from scientific publications, field measurements taken by marine mammal response and conservation organizations, and museum archives. Measures include: Body length (cm): Whale's total body length Total thickness (cm): Radius of a whale's body at mid-body, calculated from girths and body diameters Girth (cm): Estimated girth calculated as 2*pi*total thickness Bone (cm): Radius of mid-body vertebrae body Muscle (cm): Interpolated as the difference between the total thickness and the sum of the thickness of bone, blubber, and skin Blubber (cm): Thickness of blubber between muscle and skin Skin (cm): Thickness of skin Whale species include: Blue (Balaenoptera musculus) Fin (Balaenoptera physalus) Grey (Eschrichtius robustus) Humpback (Megaptera novaengliae) Minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) Sei (Balaenoptera borealis) Sperm (Physeter macrocephalus) This data is used in the biophysical model "whalestrike" (R package), which simulates ship collisions with whales and calculates a lethality index. Details on data collection and references are described in the PDF document (Whale_measurements).