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The blue whale is the largest animal on Earth and likely the largest animal ever to have lived. While this ocean mammoth is dubbed “blue,” its color is more a reflection of the water it swims ...
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal and a baleen whale.Reaching a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 m (98 ft) and weighing up to 199 t (196 long tons; 219 short tons), it is the largest animal known ever to have existed.
Whale skulls have small eye orbits, long snouts (with the exception of monodontids and ziphiids) and eyes placed on the sides of its head. Whales range in size from the 2.6-metre (8.5 ft) and 135-kilogram (298 lb) dwarf sperm whale to the 34-metre (112 ft) and 190-metric-ton (210-short-ton) blue whale.
In general, blue whale populations migrate between their summer feeding areas near the poles and their winter breeding grounds near the tropics. There is also evidence of year-round residencies, and partial or age/sex-based migration. Blue whales are filter feeders; their diet consists almost exclusively of krill. They are generally solitary or ...
The fossil specimen is shorter than that of a 25-meter long (82-foot-long) blue whale — but its skeletal mass still potentially exceeded that of any known mammal or sea vertebrate, including its ...
An underwater photographer who got up close and personal with a massive blue whale says the experience left him feeling awestruck — and incredibly small. Stunning photo shows diver's close ...
Rorquals (/ ˈ r ɔːr k w əl z /) are the largest group of baleen whales, comprising the family Balaenopteridae, which contains nine extant species in two genera.They include the largest known animal that has ever lived, the blue whale, which can reach 180 tonnes (200 short tons), and the fin whale, which reaches 120 tonnes (130 short tons); even the smallest of the group, the northern minke ...
The endangered species label is a result of whale-hunting during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1960s, blue whales were given international protection , and hunting the species was ...