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The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the family Odobenidae and genus ''Odobenus''. This species is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic walrus (''O. r. rosmarus'') which lives in the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific walrus (''O. r. divergens'') which lives in the Pacific Ocean, and ''O. r. laptevi'', which lives in the Laptev Sea of the Arctic Ocean. Adult walruses are easily recognized by their prominent tusks, whiskers, and bulkiness. Adult males in the Pacific can weigh more than 〔(Walrus: Physical Characteristics ). seaworld.org〕 and, among pinnipeds, are exceeded in size only by the two species of elephant seals. Walruses live mostly in shallow waters above the continental shelves, spending significant amounts of their lives on the sea ice looking for benthic bivalve mollusks to eat. Walruses are relatively long-lived, social animals, and they are considered to be a "keystone species" in the Arctic marine regions. The walrus has played a prominent role in the cultures of many indigenous Arctic peoples, who have hunted the walrus for its meat, fat, skin, tusks, and bone. During the 19th century and the early 20th century, walruses were widely hunted and killed for their blubber, walrus ivory, and meat. The population of walruses dropped rapidly all around the Arctic region. Their population has rebounded somewhat since then, though the populations of Atlantic and Laptev walruses remain fragmented and at low levels compared with the time before human interference. ==Etymology== The origin of the word ''walrus'' is thought by J.R.R. Tolkien〔J.R.R. Tolkien and the OED, (J.R.R. Tolkien and the OED )〕 to derive from a Germanic language, and it has been attributed largely to either the Dutch language or Old Norse. Its first part is thought to derive from a word such as Dutch ''walvis'' 'whale'. Its second part has also been hypothesized to come from the Old Norse word for 'horse'.〔(Dictionary.com ). Dictionary.reference.com. Retrieved 16 September 2011.〕 For example, the Old Norse word ''hrossvalr'' means 'horse-whale' and is thought to have been passed in an inverted form to both Dutch and the dialects of northern Germany as ''walros'' and ''Walross''.〔Dansk Etymologisk Ordbog, Niels Age Nielsen, Gyldendal 1966〕 An alternate theory is that is comes from the Dutch words ''wal'' 'shore' and ''reus'' 'giant'.〔(Etymology of mammal names ). Iberianature.com (29 December 2010). Retrieved 16 September 2011.〕 The species name ''rosmarus'' is Scandinavian. The Norwegian manuscript ''Konungsskuggsja'', thought to date from around AD 1240, refers to the walrus as "rosmhvalr" in Iceland and "rostungr" in Greenland (walruses were by now extinct in Iceland and Norway, while the word evolved on in Greenland). Several place names in Iceland, Greenland and Norway may originate from walrus sites: Hvalfjord, Hvallatrar and Hvalsnes to name some, all being typical walrus breeding grounds. The archaic English word for walrus—''morse''—is widely thought to have come from the Slavic languages,〔(morse, n., etymology of ) The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press.〕 which in turn borrowed it from Finno-Ugric languages. Compare морж (''morž'') in Russian, ''mursu'' in Finnish, ''morša'' in Northern Saami, and ''morse'' in French. Olaus Magnus, who depicted the walrus in the ''Carta Marina'' in 1539, first referred to the walrus as the ''ros marus'', probably a Latinization of ''morž'', and this was adopted by Linnaeus in his binomial nomenclature. The coincidental similarity between ''morse'' and the Latin word ''morsus'' ("a bite") supposedly contributed to the walrus's reputation as a "terrible monster".〔 The compound ''Odobenus'' comes from ''odous'' (Greek for 'tooth') and ''baino'' (Greek for 'walk'), based on observations of walruses using their tusks to pull themselves out of the water. The term ''divergens'' in Latin means 'turning apart', referring to their tusks. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Walrus」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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