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The head of the bowhead whale comprises a large portion of its body length, creating an enormous feeding apparatus. [21] The bowhead whale is a filter feeder, and feeds by swimming forward with its mouth wide open. [19] It has hundreds of overlapping baleen plates consisting of keratin hanging from each side of the upper jaw. The mouth has a ...
Balaena is a genus of cetacean (whale) in the family Balaenidae. Balaena is considered a monotypic genus, as it has only a single extant species, the bowhead whale (B. mysticetus). It was named in 1758 by Linnaeus, who at the time considered all of the right whales (and the bowhead) as a single species.
Marine mammals comprise over 130 living and recently extinct species in three taxonomic orders.The Society for Marine Mammalogy, an international scientific society, maintains a list of valid species and subspecies, most recently updated in October 2015. [1]
The term "Great Whales" covers those currently regulated by the International Whaling Commission: [8] the Odontoceti family Physeteridae (sperm whales); and the Mysticeti families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Eschrichtiidae (grey whales), and some of the Balaenopteridae (Minke, Bryde's, Sei, Blue and Fin; not Eden's and Omura's whales ...
Balaenidae (/ b ə ˈ l ɛ n ɪ d eɪ,-d iː /) is a family of whales of the parvorder Mysticeti (baleen whales) that contains mostly fossil taxa and two living genera: the right whale (genus Eubalaena), and the closely related bowhead whale (genus Balaena).
Balaenoptera (from Latin balaena 'whale' and Ancient Greek πτερά (pterá) 'fin') is a genus of rorquals containing eight extant species. [2] Balaenoptera comprises all but two of the extant species in its family (the humpback whale and gray whale); the genus is currently polyphyletic, with the two aforementioned species being phylogenetically nested within it.
Mysticeti comprises the families Balaenidae (right and bowhead whales), Balaenopteridae , Eschrichtiidae (the gray whale) and Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale). There are currently 16 species of baleen whales. Baleen whales split from toothed whales (Odontoceti) around 34 million years ago
The skim-feeders are right whales, gray whales, pygmy right whales, and sei whales (which also lunge feed). To feed, skim-feeders swim with an open mouth, filling it with water and prey. Prey must occur in sufficient numbers to trigger the whale's interest, be within a certain size range so that the baleen plates can filter it, and be slow ...